


Under a Green Hood

by RenkonNairu



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Blame Disney, Drama, Gen, Headcanon, I have a headcanon in which Nick is Robin Hood okay, Melodrama, Nick is Robin Hood, Non-Hereditary Inheritance, Passing of Titles, Robin Hood - Freeform, Scarlet Pimpernel - Freeform, Tags Contain Spoilers, The Author Regrets Nothing, Zorro - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-07-27 16:22:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7625506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenkonNairu/pseuds/RenkonNairu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slick Nick, Pawpsicle Hustler, First Fox Officer of the ZPD... Nick's earned a lot of titles in his life. But after helping Hopps save the city from a corrupt Mayor, he earns one title he never even dreamed of.</p><p>-OR-</p><p>Nick gets a mysterious envelope in the mail.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Red Plume

Judy was already sitting in their shared chair by the time Nick swaggered into the bullpen. That was nothing new. The energetic farm-raised bunny was a morning person by nature and an early riser by practice. The recently reformed fox whom was descended from a mostly nocturnal species was not. 

But that wasn't why he was -not late, just not quite as early as Judy- today. 

Climbing on top of the desk -getting paw prints on a file she had open- the fox whistled to get everyone's attention, and waved a manila legal envelope with a wax seal as if it was a trophy of some sort. 

“Attention, everyone!” He announced, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his outburst was interrupting the otherwise steady flow of actual police work being done. “I am about to become filthy stinking rich! -Legitimately.” He added, bending down so that only Judy with her keen rabbit hearing could catch that last part. “My rich and ambiguously related relative from the Old Country just died!”

Instantly, the mood in the room changed from patient irritation with Officer Wilde's latest antic to horrified disgust at his statement. 

“What's wrong with you, Wilde?” Asked McHorn. The rhino shaking his head in disappointment at the smaller officer. 

“A Mammal just died and all you can think about is what you get out of it.” Howler turned up his nose in disgust with his fellow canid predator. 

Several other officers muttered similar sentiments. 

Judy had her own opinions about Nick's views of what the appropriate behavior was when a relative passed away, but she kept them to herself. If a scolding was still necessary by the time they got into the privacy of their squad car and hit the streets, she would talk to him then. Not here with an audience. 

“Guys, guys, you're not getting it.” Nick insisted, refusing to listen to their admonishments. “He. Was. Rich! Sir Robert of Loxley VI! He's so rich, he has a 'Sir', an 'of', and a numeral in his name! And his estate just sent me this!” He brandished the manila envelope. “I'm about to become a millionaire! Maybe I'll even get a title and a barony back in the Old Country!” He lowered the envelope and folded his arms solemnly. “I will now take requests for gifts I can get you all with my unimaginably absurd wealth. McHorn and Howler get nothing because they're nay-sayers, everyone else, lets hear it!”

There was a beat of silence in which everyone in the bull pen just stared at him, mystified. 

Finally, Judy broke the silence by making the practical suggestion. “Why don't you open the letter and see how much you actually got before making promises I'm almost sure you won't be able to keep.”

“Ugh. You never let me have any fun.” Nick sighed as he turned the envelope over. He dragged a claw across the wax seal. Green wax stamped with an arrow and a bow. He lifted the flap and was about to reach in when he got nervous. “Ooh! I'm to excited! Someone else read it for me!”

Delgato came up and yanked the envelope from the fox's paws. “Gawd, Wilde, you're such a cub!”

He examined the wax seal for a moment. The lion officer thought the arrow and the bow looked oddly familiar, then he shrugged, deciding it ultimately didn't matter. He reached his over-sized lion paw into the to-small-for-him fox-sized envelope -and felt nothing. In confusion he wiggled a finger inside the manila envelope until he finally touched something and pulled it out. 

“Looks like you got hustled again, Wilde.” Delgato announced. “There's nothing in here but this.”

He held up a single red feather. 

The room erupted with laughter at the fox's expense. 

That was when Nick's mood changed. He wasn't discouraged by their reprimands of his behavior, or Judy's cautions that he might be disappointed by his inheritance, or even the fact they they were now laughing at him as if he were the precent idiot, no. A little red feather was the thing that finally made Nick's ears droop and his eyes go wide with -not disappointment. Was that... apprehension? Horror? Dismay? 

“Is that a robin feather?” He asked, voice almost quivering.

He snatched the feather and envelope back from the lion, hopping off of the desk, finally. Judy might have gone back to work now that he was no long standing on her documents. Everyone else dispersed quickly enough after realizing that Wilde had been put back in his place. Except now she was concerned about him. Nick was staring at the wax seal of the envelope as if seeing it for the first time. An arrow and a bow in forrest green wax. 

“You okay there, partner?” She asked, ears flattening against her back. She leaned over the desk to him, nose twitching. 

“I don't understand.” Nick muttered, holding the red robin's feather now like it was some ancient and sacred religious artifact. “I'm not- I can't be- There's gotta be a mistake.”

“What is it?” Judy asked, more serious this time, thinking that the robin's feather was some strange and convoluted death threat from another mob boss he might have angered during his con-artists days. Nick already had a pantheon of enemies when Judy first met him and that number had only increased since he graduated from the academy and became the first fox officer on the force. “Are you in danger?”

He looked down at her, startled. Almost as if the fox had forgotten she was even there. “Danger? No. No, nothing like that. It...” He looked back at the robin feather, at the arrow and bow seal, back up at her. “It's a fox thing. I can't- I can't really explain it. Sorry. I gotta go.”

He -very carefully and respectfully- stuffed the robin feather back in its envelope and made a b-line for the door. 

“Wait! You'll miss roll call!” Judy called after him. But Nick was already gone. Not even bothering to shout back for her to 'cover for him' with the Chief. The bunny slumped back down in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest with a pout. A fox thing, her lucky foot! Nick was hiding something from her and -given his checkered past- she did not like the implications of that.

…

Marian Wilde lived in the same apartment over her late husband's failed clothing business for over thirty years. Certainly, it was the only place Nick ever remembered her living. So that was where he went after he ran out of work in a distraught, disbelieving, and slightly dazed huff. 

Nick had a key to his mother's house, but his paws shook so badly with nerves that he dropped them three times before giving up and just knocking instead. 

Marian opened the door slowly, and then blinked in surprise at finding her son -in full uniform- standing on the doorstep looking shocked and a little lost. Her mind instantly jumped to one of the many fears she had developed since he first joined the ZPD and a paw flew to her mouth in preemptive horror. “Oh, Nicky! Who died?”

“What?” The younger fox blinked at her. “No. No one died. Well, I mean, some old knighted fox from the Old Country died. But I didn't know him. That's not why I'm- Look. Here.”

He held out the envelope with its arrow and bow seal pressed into dark forrest green wax. Nick might not have recognized the seal the first time he saw it, but Marian did. Every fox knew that seal. This time the paw over her mouth wasn't horror, but rather, quiet disbelief. She opened the envelope and pulled out the red robin feather. 

“I found this in my mailbox this morning.” He explained. “The return address is from the Loxley Estate.” 

Marian ran a finger over the feather, smoothing out the strands. “Nicky... do you know what this means?”

“Yeah...” He muttered. “I mean, I think I do. But I don't get why.”

He used to really love all the stories his dad would tell him about the hero fox under the green hood who wore a red robin's feather as a badge. The Robin under the Hood. He was the one and only fox from classical literature that could be considered a 'positive role model' -even if he was a thief. But he gave everything he stole back to the over taxed and impoverished. But after the incident with the Scouts, Nick stopped paying attention to those stories. He stopped liking them. A fox as a hero. Ha! What fairy tale was he living in?

Then he and Carrots saved the city from a convoluted speciesist conspiracy and he became a hero fox. A real life hero fox. Just like Robert of Loxley the First, just like Percival Blakeney, just like Diego de la Vega. Suddenly he receives a red robin's feather in the mail, the badge of a Robin under the Hood. Nick's conception of the world and how it worked was very shaken. He felt like a nervous little kit again who didn't know where he stood in the world or where he was going. 

“Mom...?” He asked, voice quivering slightly. “Am I Robin Hood?”


	2. Line of the Hood

“What do you mean, Wilde just ran out?” Chief Bogo exhaled through his nostrils, sending a jet of uncomfortably warm air at Judy. They were the only two left in the bullpen. The Chief not realizing that the fox was absent until he was about to assign the two of them a case. He held the file out only to realize that there was only one lone gray paw hopping up for it instead of a reddish brown one reaching. 

“Apparently there was a death in the family.” Hopps explained. It wasn't a complete lie -she didn't think. Nick did say that his 'ambiguously related' something-or-other had passed away. 

She looked up Sir Robert of Loxley VI after he ran out. From a quick Loogle search on her phone, she found the Loxley Estates official website -which admittedly didn't give much useful information. The Loxley line was -apparently- the last fox family to still hold ranks among the Old Country nobility. They were a throwback from a period of Mammal history when then ruling class was exclusively predator. Today the estate was devoted to education of Mammal history and the preservation of classical folk tales and heroes. So, basically, it told Judy absolutely nothing even remotely relevant to what she wanted to know. She couldn't tell how this Robert Loxley the Sixth was even related to Nick. Unless both of them being red foxes suddenly counted as being 'related'. 

At the mention of a 'death in the family' the water buffalo heaved a groan, this one of exasperation. “Well, tell him that he'll need to come back in at least to fill out the bereavement paperwork.”

He turned to leave without giving Judy the case file. 

“Uh, sir, my assignment.” The rabbit held out a paw for the folder. 

“I gave you you're assignment, Hopps.” Bogo informed her in a patient voice. “Make sure your idiot partner fills out his bereavement paperwork. Keep his act together for him in his time of need.” Slightly under his breath, as if Judy weren't supposed to hear. “Minos knows he has enough trouble keeping his act together as it is.”

So that was it, then. She was unofficially being demoted to Nick's babysitter. A fate worse than parking duty. Never mind the fact that Nick was a grown adult and should be perfectly capable to minding himself and his own affairs without her hovering and nagging. Instead she nodded to her commanding officer. “Yes, sir.”

“And, Hopps, there's also some paperwork I need you to finish from the Bellwether case.” He added, giving her a significantly more important duty to fill the time in between episodes of Nick's personal drama. “I'm handing everything over to the prosecutor on Monday.”

“Yes, sir.” That, at least, was work she could be proud of. 

She made her way over to the cubicle they shared as a work space. While her computer was booting up, Judy hammered out a text to Nick, informing him that he needed to talk to the Chief about his absence, and that if the 'death in the family' story was really true he needed to fill out the appropriate forms for bereavement leave. Considering how he was carrying on earlier, she highly doubted he was any version of 'bereaved'. But if that was the story he was gonna stick to... best to get the forms filled out. 

As she opened up her files on the Night Howler case and the arrest of Dawn Bellwether, Judy's final thoughts on Nick before pushing him from her mind and getting to work were of where he went, what he was doing, and what that red feather really meant.

…

Marian pulled an old hardbound book off a shelf. Nick recognized it instantly, his dad had read it to him enough times growing up. 'Ballads and Tales of Robin Under the Hood'. 

“Everyone knows the story.” She said, holding the book against her heart as she beamed at her son. “A soldier under the Lionheart returns home from war to find the king's petty brother has bankrupt the country and driven the Mammals into poverty. His own property and fortune seized by the crown, he retreats into the Greenwood and becomes a highway robber. Stealing from the corrupt government and returning -most- of what he takes back to the impoverished and displaced citizens -prey and predator alike.”

It didn't matter if you were an elephant, a mouse, or a hippo, everyone knew that was the story of Robin Hood. 

What most Mammals didn't know, was that 'Robin Hood' wasn't a name. It was a title. A title that was actually bestowed on three foxes over the course of Mammal history, not just the one. Oh, sure, the one everyone recognized as simply Robin Hood was the first. 

But since him there was also Sir Percival Blakeney, a baronet of the Old Country like the first Robin under the Hood. But unlike his predecessor, Percy didn't steal money from his own government and give to the poor. Instead, he stole the condemned from their executions -in Normandy after their first Revolution, during the Reign of Terror. But if a Mammal wanted to look him up in the annals of history, the corsac fox would be more easily found under the alias 'the Scarlet Pimpernel'. The title of Robin under the Hood wasn't bestowed upon him until near the end of his career, before that he operated under a different alias. 

After Percy, the third Robin under the Hood was a slightly more famous vigilante fox. Even a Mammal who wasn't a fox still might have heard of Diego de la Vega. He was a pampas fox and -thus far- the first Brother of the Hood to live and operate in the New World. He was a Californio nobleman who championed both the lower class and indigenous Mammals. Needless to say, this put him at odds with the ruling body of the time. That seemed to be the unifying characteristic of a Robin under the Hood, sticking it to the government and championing the Mammals that had been the victims of said corrupt government -both prey and predator alike. 

Robin Hood was always a fox. But he served all Mammals. 

Nick took the book from his mother and began leafing through its pages without actually reading them. His eyes were looking at it, but he wasn't really seeing it. 

His phone vibrated in his pocket, but he ignored that too. It was probably just Carrots texting him about how mad Buffalobutt was about his ditching work because a feather freaked him out. Of course no one at the precent would understand. Only another fox would know what the red robin plume meant. He could only imagine what Carrots and the others might be imagining right now. Except he couldn't imagine, because his mind was occupied with more pressing questions.

“Was it because of the Bellwether thing, do you think?” He asked, still disbelieving. He never once in his life imagined that he could be a Robin under the Hood. He might be sly, but he wasn't all that cunning. He might be a con-artists with a soft spot, but he was a far cry from a noble outlaw. “That's not enough to be a Robin, I don't think. I don't deserve this...”

This honor?

This responsibility?

This childlike fantasy he didn't even know he had?

Marian held the red feather up, directly in front of her son's face. “Someone out there seems to think you do. Robin feathers symbolize growth and renewal, or new beginnings and a bright future. They also mark those blessed by the trickster god Goodfellow and are the badge of a Robin under the Hood.” 

“I know.” Nick snapped the book shut. “I just... I need to... There must have been some mistake. I can't be Robin Hood, I'm a cop! A government employee. That's, like, the natural enemy of a Robin under the Hood.”

“Not necessarily.” Marian insisted. “A Robin challenges corruption, and Mayor Bellwether was definitely corrupt. A Robin defends those who can't defend themselves, and I'm pretty sure those poor predators weren't in any sort of state to help themselves at the time. A Robin uses tricks and deceptions to achieve his ends. All of that you did. Sounds to me like you're a model Robin under the Hood.”

Nick appreciated the complement. But, really, if he was going to be completely honest with himself, Carrots was the real hero. She was more deserving of the Robin badge -except the red plume was only ever bestowed on foxes. Since the rules -unwritten though they were- wouldn't allow her to be a Robin, the feather then passed to him -whom was a fox and thus eligible to hold the title.

And then Nick got an insane idea. In Zootopia, anyone can be anything. Why couldn't a bunny be a Robin Hood? The rules were unwritten. Who says it has to always be a fox. If a bunny could be a cop, a bunny could be a Brother of the Hood (or Sister of the Hood, as the case may be). Who even decided who could and couldn't be a Robin anyway?

…

Clawhouser was munching on a doughnut when an unfamiliar red fox walked through the precent doors. He strolled right up to the reception desk and might have leaned on it casually if it hadn't been just a smidgen to tall for him. Instead, he placed a paw on the edge and peered up at the pastry loving cheetah. 

“Excuse me.” He said in a smooth Old Country accent that dripped with years of boarding schools and private tutors. Which was not something one usually imagined a member of the fox species possessing. “I'm looking for a Mr. Nickolas Wilde. I was told he's an officer here.”

And he said the word 'officer' as if it were the most absurd thing in the world. As if a fox had no business working for the law. As if it violated everything he was and everything he believed in. 

Putting his doughnut down, Clawhouser gave an apologetic smile to the red fox. “I'm sorry, but Officer Wilde is unavailable. But maybe you'd like to speak to his partner instead?”

The red fox made a face of displeasure, his ears flicking with annoyance. But he agreed all the same. “Alright. I'll speak to him then.”

“Sure, sure, I'll just give her a quick page.” He didn't comment on the fox's automatic assumption that Nick's partner would be another male. Correcting casual sexism like that wasn't in his job description -plus, there were far more dramatic schema that Judy defied and Clawhouser liked seeing the looks on Mammals faces when she broke their schema. He pressed the button on his radio. “Hopps, there's a fox here who wants to speak with you.” Then quickly added. “Its not Nick.”

The fox's ears flicked again. 'Hopps'? Like what beer was made from? What kind of Mammal name was that? Wolf? Rhino? Tiger?

None of the above, apparently. The Mammal that walked out into the lobby was a bunny. A tiny little gray bunny. A bunny was Wilde's partner? No! They had to be playing some kind of joke on him. 

The bunny's eyes fell on him and she hopped over with a polite smile on her face. “Hi. Judy Hopps, ZPD, I'm Nick's partner. How can I help you?”

“You're a rabbit.” He blurted out. That cultured Old Country accent making the statement sound all the more ridiculous. 

But the bunny just smiled at him. A sly smile that was not at all bunny-like. In fact, it very much reminded him of a fox's smirk. “Oh, you noticed that too. You foxes really are the cleverest.” 

Was she mocking him? She was! A rabbit was mocking a fox. A rabbit was a police officer, partnered with a fox, and mocked predators. What kind of tail-backwards city was this Zootopia?

He cleared his throat. “Yes, well, you're rather smart yourself.” A smart-tail. “My name is Robert Loxley and I believe your partner was sent something of mine by mistake.” 

Judy's ears -which were usually pretty perky- went ramrod straight at the name. She was literally just looking up that name only a few short hours ago. She looked him up and down. A red fox like Nick. A little taller, maybe. Wearing casual slacks, a button down shirt and a light blazer thrown over his shoulders. Pinned to his blazer lapel was a pin shaped like a shield, and after a moment's closer inspection, she recognized it as the same symbol pressed into the wax seal of Nick's envelope. An arrow and a bow. So, if the Robert Loxley that recently passed away was the sixth, then this one had to be the seventh, right?

But what did he want a stupid red feather for? She added that right under 'Why did Nick freak out from a feather?' on her list of things to do today. Answer those questions. 

To Loxley she said, “I'm sorry, but I can't give out the personal information of a fellow officer. If you like, you can leave a message and your preferred method of contact with me and I'll make sure Nick gets it.”

“That won't be necessary.” Loxley assured her. He had other ways of finding Mammals -not that he would announce that in the middle of a police station. The less the bobbies were involved, the better. Brothers of the Hood took care of Hood business. Other Mammals need not get involved. 

Nick Wilde's couldn't be the Robin under the Hood.


	3. Dispute of Succession

Judy spent her lunch hour looking for Nick. He wasn't at his apartment, neither was he with Finnick (whom had some colorful words to say about his forum partner turned officer of the law and tool of the establishment). She tried using the Find My Phone GPS, Nick didn't know she knew his password, but was disappointed to discover that he had the app turned off. On a whim, not knowing what else to try, Judy decided to pay his mother a visit and ask her if she knew anything about why a red feather might freak her son out, or who Robert Loxley VI -and VII- really were. 

The rabbit had met the vixen only twice before the first time shortly after Bellwether's arrest when Nick took his mother out for brunch and explained to her what his part was in the scandal, and that he was fine (mothers loved to worry, as Judy knew all to well), and that he had decided to join the ZPD and become a police officer. Thanks to the Mammal Inclusion Initiative he could do that -become the first fox officer. Nick asked Judy to come along to that brunch to help him explain things and assure his mother that he wasn't in any kind of trouble with the law.

The second time was, of course, at Nick's graduation ceremony. 

Judy had never been to the vixen's house or had reason to see her socially since Nick became an officer. They ran in different circles, had the generation gap as a barrier between them, and just didn't have all that much on common with each other besides Nick. There was no reason for Judy to see Marian, or Marian to see Judy unless Nick was involved. 

Well, Nick was involved. So, the rabbit knocked politely on the front door. 

Marian answered with only and slight delay, her shoulders set at an angle Mammals usually had when they were being interrupted and just wanted the interloper to go away. But she was polite when she said, “Oh, Officer Hopps, how are you?”

“Fine, ma'am.” Judy replied, equally polite. Sometimes, she got the feeling that Nick's mother didn't really trust her. Judy couldn't imagine why. She'd only nearly gotten the vixen's son killed twice. It wasn't like Nick was in any danger simply by being around her. She wasn't a magnet for trouble or anything. “You wouldn't happen to have seen Nick at all today, have you? He ran out of roll call this morning, and the Chief needs him to fill out some time-off papers.”

She did not mention the mysterious envelope or the red feather. At least, not right away. Just in case it was a threat of some kind. Judy didn't want to make the other woman worry. Mothers loved to worry. 

It was then, probably at hearing his own name, that Nick appeared behind his mother. Still in uniform, still looking a little flustered, but much calmer than he was at the station, an old book clutched in his paw. “Ah! Carrots! Just the Mammal I wanted to see! Come in, come in.”

He pushed past his mother, grabbed the bunny by the paw and pulled her inside.

Judy squeezed past Marian, muttering awkward apologies as Nick all but yanked her into the apartment. The entryway was a blur of motion, the room not coming into proper focus until her seemingly hyperactive partner let go and she fell into a couch -covered in plastic- that was just one size to big for her. Looking up at the fox in confusion, Judy saw that Nick was no longer looking at her, but instead flipping through pages in the old-as-a-Gutenberg book he held.

“Nick, what is going on with y-”

“I assume you know who this is.” He shoved the book in her face and Judy just barely managed to register a glimpse of an illustration. 

Drawn in rough lines and painted in water color. A red fox in a green tunic with a hood pulled over his head so low it obscured most of his face. A bow with arrow drawn in his hands. A red robin's feather stuck in one side of his hood, like a plume in a cap. On the opposite page was something written in lyrical verse. Judy didn't have enough time to read it all. Her brain just managing to register a random line from somewhere in the middle. 

'20. 'I prithee, good fellow, O where art thou now?'

Whatever it was, it was written before they had invented spelling -or grammar for that matter.

Nick snatched the book away before she could read more and resumed flicking through pages. 

“Was that Robin Hood?” The bunny blinked up at him. “Nick, please don't tell me you ditched work to read children's stories with your mother. Bogo's gonna kill you! I thought there was a death in the family. Aren't you the least bit upset? And what was that feather that you seemed to freak out over?”

Had she not been so flustered, Judy might have also thrown in the mention of the stranger with the Old Country accent that came looking for him. But she honestly had forgotten about him for the moment. There was just something about Nick that got her so worked up and frustrated. It wasn't just his general casualness and lackadaisical attitude, the fox vexed her on a whole other level the over-achieving bunny had never experienced before. Without even trying, Nick managed to get under her skin. 

“Shush. This isn't written in order.” 

“Don't shush me!” Judy stood from the couch. “Look, I don't care why you're really suddenly deciding to skip work, if you're really grieving or if you have to settle some unfinished business back from your life of crime. But whatever's really going on-”

“Here!” Once again, the fox cut her off by shoving the book at her. This time, actually handing it to her and giving her time to not only look at the pictures but actually read the opposite page. 

Another illustration, sketched in the same rough lines and painted in watercolors, this time, the red fox was wearing a tabard and armor reminiscent of the Crusades era, except the iconic Xtian motif were missing. In their placer were intricate knot-work designs. He was in some kind of arid desert prison, chained and slumped against a stone wall. Kneeling in front of him was... was a creature Judy didn't recognize -unless 'mythical' counted as recognition. 

The creature had the face and body of a fox, but the antlers of a stag, the hooves of a goat and the short little fluff tail of a bunny. The way the artist drew its fur made it look more like the creature had a coat of leaves rather than a coat of soft fox hair. It knelt in front of the red fox, holding out something in his hoof-paw, as if offering the fox a deal, and Judy saw that the thing he held was a red feather. 

Glancing at the opposite page, Judy was relived to see that it find that it was not written in Middle English lyrical verse, but something slightly more modern and easy to digest. It was a narrative telling how the Earl of Huntington (presumably the fox knight) was captured and held -along with the Lionheart- by their enemies whom planned to ransom them. One evening during a waxing moon, the Trickster of the Wood (presumably the bizarre fox-stag-goat chimera) appeared to the Earl and offered him a deal. The Trickster would free him from his bonds and guard his passage back home so long as the Earl did something for him once he got there. 

“What exactly am I supposed to be taking away from this?” Judy blinked up at Nick, not understanding at all how this was significant, or why he couldn't just stop acting weird and come back to work. 

Now it was Nick's turn to become frustrated with her for not being able to read his mind and insanely understand everything he was trying to communicate to her -never mind that he was expressing himself badly and not managing to articulate anything longer than a single sentence. He flopped down on the couch next to her and stabbed a claw at the illustration. 

“That is Lord Robert of Loxley -the first.” He said, pointing to the fox knight. He moved his finger to the creature. “And that is Robin Goodfellow.”

He let those names hang in the air between them as if they carried the great weight of importance to them. As if Judy should instantly recognize them and know their history and significance. But, aside from the fact that this was the third time today that she was hearing the damn name 'Robert of Loxley', Judy neither knew who they were or why she should care beyond the fact that they were distracting her partner from doing his job. 

“And they are...?” Judy prompted, hoping her fox planned to elaborate at some point. 

Behind the couch, Nick's mother huffed. Marian placed her paws on her hips and glared at her son in irritation. “Nicky, if she doesn't already know, then she won't understand.” 

“That's why I'm explaining.” The younger fox informed his mother. He turned his attention back to the rabbit on the couch, she was starring between him and his mother in confusion. “Robert Loxley was the first Robin under the Hood, and Goodfellow is the lesser pagan god that made him the Robin.” A pause. Nick pulled out the red robin feather. “With this.”

Judy blinked at the feather, recognizing it as the one from the precent. The only thing that came in Nick's mysterious envelope of presumed inheritance. 

“Its not the original badge, of course.” Nick added, as if this was the detail that was confusing her. “At this point the feather is just symbolic.” 

“So...” The bunny began, unsure of the words that were about to tumble out of her mouth. “Someone sent you a random red feather in the mail and now you think you're Robin Hood?”

“What? No, no, no.” He shook his head. “Someone else thinks I deserve to be a Robin under the Hood. The thing is, though...” He trailed off, paused. Considered his words. “The thing is, I don't think I deserved it. It was a team effort when we took down Bellwether. You did just as much as I did. In fact, you did more since it was really you who figured out it was the flowers. I was pretty much just along for the ride up until the end there, so... so, I think you deserve this more.” The fox once again held the feather out to her. “You deserve to be the Robin under the Hood, Carrots.”

He smiled to himself. Judy Hopps certainly was a lot of firsts. The first bunny police officer. The first investigator to make a break in the missing Mammal case. The first to prove that, in Zootopia, anyone really could be anything. And now she was the first non-fox Robin Hood. It was fitting. Nick liked it. He was glad he was giving the badge of the Robin under the Hood to her. 

“Nickolas Piberius Wilde!” Marian put her paws on her hips and snarled at her son. “What exactly do you think you're doing?”

“I'm giving the badge to someone who deserves it.” Nick said, as if this should have been obvious. Then, to Judy, added, “Keep the book too.”

“Absolutely not!” Marian came around the couch and yanked the old tome from off the bunny's lab before she even had the opportunity to react. “If you want to throw the badge away, you're free to do that. It was given to you so its yours and you can do whatever the heck you like with it. But this book stays in this family!”

Nick opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, closed it again without uttering a word.

Judy took that as her cue to stand. “This is clearly some cultural thing that I'm just not understanding.” She said, hoping it sounded polite. “I didn't mean to stick my nose in. I'll just go.” To Nick she said, “If you're not gonna be back at work by tomorrow, then at least come in and fill out some time off papers so Bogo doesn't chew you out, okay.”

She moved to leave. Paused, remembering she was still holding the red feather. Turned back and tried to hand it back to Nick. 

The fox pushed her paw away. “No. I'm serious, Carrots. You deserve it more than me.”

“Nick, I don't even know what this thing even means.” She reminded him sternly. “It clearly holds some very powerful meaning if the way your mother is still glaring at me is any indication. I'm not gonna keep a thing with that kind of cultural significance if I don't fully understand that significance. It would be disrespectful.”

“Listen to our partner, Nicky.” Marian told him. “She may be a bunny, but she's not dumb.”

Nick did take the feather out of her paw. But only to slide it down under her gold ZPD badge. The red tips just barely peeking out from the top and bottom on a diagonal. He seemed to ignore everything either woman in the room just told him. “Wear it here. Since you don't have a hood.”

Marian huffed in defeat. Throwing one arm up in the air uselessly. She stomped out of the room, the 'Ballads and Tales of Robin Under the Hood' tucked securely under her other arm. “I am not adding her to the book...”

“Nick, I really don't-” Judy began to protest, but Nick put a paw to her lips to silence the protest. 

“Sh. Just keep it, Carrots. For me.” He said. “Trust me. You deserve it way more than I do.”

She ended up leaving with the feather still pinned between her badge and her uniform -mostly because Nick shoved her out the door before Judy could utter another protest. “But, what if-?”

The door was slammed almost on her cute little bunny nose. 

The moment Judy was gone -'gone' here meaning 'no longer in a position to participate in the conversation', Nick was pretty sure she was still outside voicing her protest- he followed his mother into the kitchen. She had the book open to the last page containing text. Explaining how, after the death of Diego de la Vega in 1859, the mantel of Robin under the Hood was returned to the custodianship of the Loxley estate until a suitable successor could be found. 

Marian flipped the page. The very first blank page after that and with a perfectly ordinary ballpoint pen began to add to the tales. 

'In the summer of 2016, almost sixty years since the passing of the last Robin under the Hood, the badge was awarded to Nickolas Piberius Wilde. Son of John Wilde and Marian Longstride. For his actions that lead to the arrest of two corrupt mayors and the end to a speciesist plot to tear the city in two.'

Nick leaned over her shoulder to read. “Did you have to put in my middle name?”

“You hush.” Marian stood to retrieve something off the wall. After the arrest of Dawn Bellwether, Marian cut out the news article that mentioned Nick by name as one of the brave heroes that contributed to solving the case and had it framed. She pulled it off the wall now to cross-reference some details as she began a narrative of the story -and Nick was sure she was going to embellish everything to make him sound more heroic and Judy sound more like the supportive sidekick. “You've already shown me that you're incapable of taking this seriously. This is your history Nicky!”

“I am taking it seriously!” Nick snarled back. “I'm taking it very seriously. That's why I don't think I deserve it. That's why I gave it to someone else who I think does deserve it! Carrots would be a way better Robin than I would.”

“Officer Hopps isn't a fox.” It bothered Marian that she felt the need to remind her son of this simple and seemingly obvious fact. Judy Hopps wasn't a fox. She was a bunny. It was worrisome how often it seemed her son seemed not to notice. 

“In Zootopia, anyone can be anything.” Nick reminded her, and he was serious. It wasn't said with irony or sarcasm. Ever since meeting Judy Hopps, being hustled by the bunny, nearly getting killed twice, saving the city twice, and making history as the first fox on the ZPD, Nick Wilde truly did start to believe that what they said was true. In Zootopia, anyone could be anything. 

And he just made a bunny Robin Hood. 

“That's a load!” Marian snarled back. 

“No its not!” Nick was not going to budge on this. He jabbed a finger at the still mostly empty page. “Write it! Put down that 'Nick Wilde felt he was unworthy of the honor, so he passed the badge to his partner who really solved the Missing Mammal and Night Howler cases -Judy Hopps. The first non-fox Robin under the Hood'.”

“I'm not writing that.” Marian was not going to budge either. Nick had inherited his stubbornness from her and she had at least twenty more years of experience digging her heels in than he did. “After I finish this, I'm going to write to the Loxley estate and tell them that you humbly decline the title and that you are passing it back to their custodianship.”

“But that's not what I did! I gave the title to Carrots.”

“Well, that's your word against what I'm going to make sure gets written down in the annals of the Hood.”

Nick snarled again, not knowing what more to say. “You're impossible!”

“You'll thank me when you have children of your own and are telling them the tales of the Brotherhood of the Hood.” Marian assured him, confident in the inevitability of her statement. “I'm upholding the Longstride family legacy.”

That was about the point Nick decided the best possible move was to storm from the room like a petulant kit. He stomped out of the kitchen and nearly crossed the living room before turning back to shout one more thing. “Well, the family name isn't 'Longstride' anymore, its 'Wilde' and maybe the Wilde family legacy is something different!”

With that, he wrenched open the door and stormed out, making a point to slam it as hard as he possibly could behind him. 

It was a good thing he kicked Judy out when he did. He wouldn't have wanted her to catch the tail end of that argument. 

…

Judy, for her part, was more confused and concerned than she was before. 

After speaking to Nick, she had more questions than she did when she first left the station. This whole Robin Hood thing sounded suspiciously more like some kind of secret society than it did a superstition held by a cultural minority. When Judy got back to the station, instead of getting back to her paperwork (like she knew she should have), she began a new Loogle search. This time looking up the names, Scarlet Pimpernel, Diego de la Vega, the Earl of Huntington, and Robin Goodfellow. 

Sir Percival Blakeney was a corsac fox and a baronet of the Old Country. Another throwback from that time in Mammal history when almost the entire ruling class was exclusively predator. He lived from 1747 to 1801. After the first Norman Revolution in 1793 he used his family wealth to sail back and forth between Old Country and Normandy, employing disguises and clever ruses to save condemned Norman nobleman from the guillotine. As Judy read about his exploits, she had to admit, he was a hustler that could give both herself and Nick and run for their money. None of her searches mentioned anything about him being Robin Hood, however. 

Diego de la Vega got considerably more search results -which meant there was much more to sift through before she find actual reputable information. Like Blakeney, he also used a different monicker than 'Robin Hood'. De la Vega went simply by 'Señor Zorro', which was just 'Mr. Fox' in another language. Judy thought that was absurd. It was like if she just went by the name 'Miss Bunny'. Terrible, terrible vigilante handle. He should have taken the name Robin Hood just to get rid of the crappy name. He lived on the west coast and claimed to avenge the helpless, to punish cruel politicians, and to aid the oppressed. It was during a time in New World history when the Californio nobility was exploiting both the working class and indigenous Mammals to point that -by today's standards- would be considered maliciously and willfully cruel. 

But, again, no mention of Robin Hood. 

Her search for the Earl of Huntington brought her back to the Loxley estate website, which Judy had already read over and wasn't interested in revisiting just yet. 

But Goodfellow... that was where the Robin Hood mythology practically exploded out of her computer monitor at her. 

Robin Goodfellow had almost more names than Judy had siblings. He was the Goodfellow, he was Puck, he was the Trickster of the Greenwood, he was the Hobgoblin or just 'Hob'... Judy's head started to spin just a little and she massaged her temples to try and stave off a stress headache and focus. For some reason, Nick had been a strong source of stress headaches for almost since she met him. One day she might take time to wonder why he affected her so much, but not so long as she had other things to distract herself with. The bunny turned her attention back to the task at hand. 

Most sources figured Goodfellow into the Robin Hood legend in one of two ways. 

Either the fae-backslash-pagan-god appeared to the fox that would later be known as Robin Hood and struck some kind of deal with him. Usually something to the effect of the fae either protecting the fox while in the Holy Land, or else ensuring that he returned home safely. In return, the fox promised the fae that when he returned home, he would become a sort of 'custodian' of the land, protecting not only the Greenwood, but also the Mammals that lived in and around it. Apparently, the fae's power (all fae, not just Goodfellow's) power was tied to the land. If the land was healthy and thriving then the pagan gods were strong and powerful. At the time, the steward left in power by the Lionheart was not doing a very good job of caring for the either the land of the Mammals that lived and worked on it. 

The other way Goodfellow figured in the Robin Hood legend was to claim that Robin Hood wasn't a fox at all, but the fae himself in mortal form. 

Judy dismissed that theory outright. Neither gods nor faeries actually existed. 

Of course, that didn't stop Mammals from believing in them. Judy -very carefully and respectfully- pulled the red feather out from behind her ZPD badge. According to her research, a red robin's feather was the symbol of Robin Goodfellow and -Judy could infer from the way Nick was acting- a sort of badge of honor to identify those blessed by the fae. Someone sent it to him, so, someone obviously thought he was blessed by this trickster god. Considering that they managed to take down not one but two corrupt politicians with nothing more than their quick wits and a couple of lucky bluffs, the bunny could easily understand why someone might think the fox was blessed by a trickster. 

But Nick thought she deserved it more than he did. 

What did that say about her?

A fox though she deserved a fox-god's blessing more than he did. Wow. After a bit of research, the bunny decided she was actually rather stunned. Nick actually had a much higher opinion of her than she originally thought. 

Judy wasn't quite sure if she wanted to keep the feather or not. But for the moment, she slid it back behind her badge. Now that she actually knew what it meant, she didn't mind keeping ti for a little while. At least until Nick decided he had earned it by his own standards and was ready to accept it back. She had no intension of keeping it indefinitely. It was given to Nick, as far as Judy was concerned, it was Nick's red plume.

…

Not feeling like going back to the precent and certainly in no mood to stay and argue more with his mother, Nick went home. 

To his leaky apartment in the Rainforest District. 

He collected the buckets he kept as semi-permanent fixtures under the leaks in his roof and emptied them out the window, watching the water cascade down the trunk into the muddy streets below. 

“Hmf. I already live in a treehouse.” He muttered to himself, replacing the now empty buckets back where they belonged. 

That done, he went to his bathroom to splash some clean water on his face. It was barely past noon, and already this had been the most exciting day in Nick's life since he graduated the academy. He had to specify since the academy because nothing could top nearly getting shot with mind altering flower-drugs, or nearly getting killed by a Savage jaguar. Near death experiences would always be more exciting than being gifted with titles and responsibilities you don't deserve. 

Nick wiped his face on a pawtowel he told himself he'd wash two days ago and still hadn't. He braced his paws on the sink and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. -And jumped back, nearly having a heart attack! It was like one of those horror movie gags where the victim opens the medicine cabinet and when they close it again there's a ghost, or a monster, or a murderer standing behind their reflection. 

In this case, it was another red fox lurking behind Nick's reflection. Dressed in all green linen and vinyl. A hood pulled low over his head, obscuring his face so that all Nick could see was his snout poking out with a frown. 

“Ach! Crivens!” Nick exclaimed, practically jumping as he spun around to stare at the intruder. He didn't bother asking how the other fox got in. He was dressed as a Brother of the Hood and it wasn't like his apartment was the most secure building in the city. “What are you doing here?”

The hooded fox didn't waste any time or mince words. He held a gloved paw out. “You have something of mine. The badge of Goodfellow. Give it to me.”

Damn it! Nick knew it was to good to be true. He didn't deserve the badge. He was no Robin under the Hood. It had to be sent to him by mistake -and it looks like it was. He was all ready to give the feather over to its rightful owner -except he didn't have it anymore. He gave it to Judy less than an hour ago. 

He stared at the hooded fox's outstretched hand. Then up at his face, smiling apologetically. “I, uh, I don't have it anymore. I gave it away.”

There was an asymmetrical twitch to the fox's face, at least, the part of the face that Nick could see. The elegant red snout marred with a deep frown. “You gave it away!?”

Then things went sideways.


	4. A Merry Ol' Chase

t was like one of those horror movie gags where everything is all fine and normal when the victim opens their medicine cabinet but when they close it again there's a ghost, or a monster, or a murderer standing behind their reflection. 

In this case, it was another red fox lurking behind Nick's reflection. Dressed in a light linen shirt, long sleeves tucked into gloves, under a vinyl hooded vest, all in shades of dark forrest green. The hood was pulled low over his head, obscuring the fox's face so that all Nick could see was his snout poking out with a frown. 

“Ach! Crivens!” Nick exclaimed, practically jumping as he spun around to stare at the intruder. He didn't bother asking how the other fox got in. He was dressed as a Brother of the Hood and it wasn't like his apartment was the most secure building in the city. “What are you doing here?”

The hooded fox didn't waste any time or mince words. He held out a gloved paw to Nick and said in a cultured, Old Country accent. “You have something of mine. The badge of Goodfellow. Give it to me.”

Damn it! Nick knew it was to good to be true. He didn't deserve the badge. He was no Robin under the Hood. It had to have been sent to him by mistake and now it looked like it really had been. Of course this guy was the real Robin under the Hood, and Robin wanted his badge back. Nick was perfectly ready and willing to give the feather over to its rightful owner -except he didn't have it anymore. He gave it to Judy less than an hour ago. 

He stared at the hooded fox's outstretched paw. Then up at his face -what Nick could see of it- and offered an apologetic smile. “I, uh, I don't have it anymore. I gave it away.”

There was an asymmetrical twitch to the fox's face. The elegant red snout marred as his frown deepened. “You gave it away!?”

Then things went sideways. The Hood's already curt and impatient demeanor shifted to quiet rage, a change that happened so quickly, it was like the crack of Zorro's whip. The paw that was held out expectantly suddenly surged forward, grabbing Nick by the collar of his ZPD uniform and slamming his back against the sink. Hard. Nick felt the porcelain grind against his vertebra as his ears were pressed against the cold glass of the mirror. 

“You were sent the badge of Goodfellow, the symbol of the Robin under the Hood, and you just... gave it away!?” And when he said 'gave it away' it sounded uncomfortably like 'threw it in the garbage'. 

Reflexively, Nick's paw gripped the handle of his ZPD issued taser. But to spite the clear assault, the fox hesitated to draw the weapon. Was he really going to taze Robbin Hood? Did he wanna be that guy? Mammals who set themselves at odds against the infamous trickster fox usually didn't get a spot in the 'happily ever after' ending. They were usually either imprisoned or dead. 

The pressure of the sink forcing Nick's spine forward while the Hood pushed his collar back cracked the fox's back. It actually felt good -for half a second- before it was immediately followed by incredible pain! He snarled in discomfort. 

Then again, this particular Robin under the Hood didn't seem as warm and friendly as his predecessors -at least, not the way the stories made his predecessors sound. 

“Who'd you give it to?” Demanded the Hood. 

The image of Carrots flashed through his mind. Sitting on his mother's plastic-covered couch, pouting up at him with a book in her lap. He did not want to send this rougher, meaner Brother of the Hood to her. Sure, the bunny was more than capable of taking care of herself. In fact, she had been the one to save Nick's life a couple of times. She was perfectly capable of taking care of not only herself, but those around her as well. But just because he knew she should handle herself didn't mean he wanted to send danger to her. Not to his bunny. 

“Someone I thought deserved it more.” Nick evaded the question. 

“I deserve it!” The Hood growled, that Old Country accent making him sound more like a petulant kit. “I'm a descendant of the original Robin under the Hood!”

“What a coincidence.” Nick growled back, channeling his inner-Bogo. “I don't care!”

The original Robin had a dozen kits with Maid Marian, after somewhere around 300 years, Robin Hood would have countless decedents. Nick himself was a descendant of the Longstride line -on his mother's side. 

He pulled his taser. The awkward position making his arm's movement unusually sluggish. The Hood saw the movement and jumped back and out of the way just as Nick brought the weapon up and pulled the trigger. The twin bolts sailed through the air where the hooded fox had been standing, until their wires were pulled tight and the bolts clattered to the floor. Sparking impotently at nothing. Nick dropped the taser gun and went for his radio instead, but froze when he realized the Hood had drawn his bow and he now had a -very sharp and intimidating- arrow aimed at his chest. 

Lowering the radio, Nick glared at the other fox. He held it at his side, holding the talk button down with his thumb and wondered just how good its microphone was, and if Clawhouser would hear it over whatever video of Gazelle he was watching at the reception desk. “As I understand it, Brothers of the Hood don't kill in cold blood.”

“A Robin of the Hood does what he needs to achieve his ends.” The other fox countered. 

Nick was beginning to understand why this guy wasn't given the badge. He might have the look, and -if the bow was any indication- probably the skills too. But he didn't have the heart. Not only did Nick not want this shady and violent hood knocking on Carrot's door, he didn't want him getting his gloved paws on Goodfellow's badge either. A Robin was supposed to be a Noble Outlaw -emphasis on the 'noble'. Not violent and self-serving thugs with delusions of grandeur and inflated ideas of their own importance. 

“So... what?” Nick asked, wondering if anyone was listening on the other end of his radio. “If I don't tell you who has the feather and where they are, you'll shoot me? Gotta say, you're not really as good at motivating Mammals to help you as the original Robin Hood.”

“And this other fox you've given the badge to, he is?”

The assumption that the Mammal Nick gave the feather to was both a fox and male made a smirk stretch across his lips. “Oh, you have no idea.”

Not only was Judy more than capable of motivating a self-serving and jaded con-artists into helping her. She also motivated said jaded and self-serving con-artists to save the city, become a hero, and aspire to become the first fox officer of the ZPD. So... yeah. Judy certainly did have Robin of the Hood level motivational skills. 

“Then let me meet him.” The words, said in any other voice, might have sounded friendly. But growled out by a hooded intruder with a weapon trained on him, all Nick heard was a challenge.

“Oh, don't worry.” The other fox grinned. “Keep talking and you will -a long with a squad of the ZPD's finest!”

“What!” The head was tilted up and Nick saw emerald green eyes identical to his own flash with from under the hood in sudden alarm. The Hood's green eyes darted to the radio in the other fox's paw and for the first time noted his thumb on the talk button. This whole time, their conversation was being broadcast straight to ZPD headquarters! The Hood shifted his aim from Nick's chest to Nick's paw and let the arrow fly. 

It impaled the radio through the speaker. Shooting it right out of Nick's grip and nailing it to the bathroom wall behind him. The pointed tip of the arrow just barely grazing the short hair of the fox's palm. 

Nick had only a moment to marvel that the near impossible and utterly fantastic shot. Right through the middle of the radio -such a small target!- and not harming his paw at all. If this guy wasn't such a self-entitled jerk, Nick would have considered admiring him. Even if he didn't have the disposition for a Robin under the Hood, he certainly had the skills. 

Then the Hood turned. Bolted from the bathroom and made a b-line for an open window. He jumped out before Nick even had the opportunity to register that his attacker was running. 

He paused. Looked back at his radio. The smart thing to do would be to wait for whomever had heard their conversation to come. Give them a statement. Collect evidence. Ya know, cop stuff. Everything they taught him at the academy told Nick that was what he should do. Stay and wait for backup. 

Then he thought of Carrots. Of Judy. Carrying a badge she didn't fully understand the significance of, unaware that there was someone after it and unprepared for an attack. If this stranger had found Nick, then he wouldn't have to much trouble finding her either. But the thing that really propelled Nick out the window after the Hood was the fact that Judy wouldn't even be in the possibility of danger if he hadn't given the stupid feather to her in the first place. 

Leaving his radio nailed to the wall by an arrow and his taser spent on the floor, Nick uttered a silent curse and followed the Hood. 

…

Clawhouser was engrossed in a riveting Twitcher debate over whether or not Gazelle might be in a predator/prey relationship with one of her tiger backup dancers. Apparently, the pop diva had posted a picture to her Instaram of herself kissing said tiger on the cheek and the internet exploded. Half her followers saying that it was her way of coming out, while the other half pointed out that it was on the cheek and passionately insisted the relationship was completely platonic -even if it wasn't strictly professional. 

Ben was in the Coming Out camp. Hashtags 'loveislove' and 'speciesdoesntmatter'.

He was so absorbed in the celebrity drama, that he almost didn't notice the crackle of dialogue over the radio. Faint and unclear. As if the speaker wasn't speaking into the receiver like they were supposed to but rather just had it on in the room while they talked. 

“...don't kill in cold blood.”

The cheetah froze. Thumbs hovering over his phone screen and a half-typed Twitcher post. He turned his head to the radio on the reception desk. At the phrase 'kill in cold blood' the celebrity gossip was instantly forgotten, his attention fully captured and held by his actual job. 

“A Robin of the Hood does what he needs to achieve his ends.”

Clawhouser didn't recognize that voice. It had the tenor of a small Mammal, but also the low growl of a predator. 

“So... what?” 

That voice sounded like Nick's. The cheetah hadn't seen him since he received a suspicious envelope earlier that morning and ran out of the precent like he'd seen a ghost -or several ghosts. Judy went to see him on her lunch break. She said he was fine then. Apparently in the space between her seeing him and now, Nick managed to find some trouble to get into. Trouble of the delusional crazy variety from the sound of it. Did someone say Robin Hood?

“If I don't tell you who has the feather and where they are, you'll shoot me? Gotta say, you're not really as good at motivating Mammals to help you as the original Robin Hood.”

As soon as Clawhouser heard the words 'you'll shoot me' he slammed his paw down on the talk button and all but shouted into the receiver. “Nick! Wilde! This is dispatch, are you hurt? Are you in need of assistance?”

Then he realized that if the fox was still holding down the talk button on his own end, nothing the cheetah said would get through. That was how radios worked. You had to let the button go if you wanted to let the other Mammal speak. Then Clawhouser realized that maybe Nick didn't want his attacker to know the radio was on. He was calling for help without actually calling for help. Just leaving the channel open and hoping a competent officer at headquarters would realize he had a weapon trained on him and needed back-up. 

“Oh, you have no idea.” Nick's smug voice sounded a little tense to Clawhouser. He was stalling, the cheetah realized. 

He should go to the Chief. Let Bogo know that the fox had gotten himself into something. 

Instead, when he ran from his post at the reception desk, it was Hopp's cubicle he went to first. “Judy!”

The bunny jumped, startled, and closed several tabs that the cheetah didn't have time to register as non-ZPD related content. “What! Ben, what's wrong?”

“Nick's gotten himself into some trouble.” Clawhouser informed her, short of breath. The quick sprint from lobby to cubicle farm had him winded. 

She looked at her friend skeptically. “What? But I just saw him. He's spending the day with his mother.” Then added after an unsure pause, “There was recently a death in the family, after all.”

The cheetah shook his head. “No. No. Call just came in over the radio. Don't know where Nick's voice talking to someone else holding him at gunpoint. Threatened to shoot him if he didn't tell him about some feather -or something.”

At the word 'feather' Judy's paw flew to her badge and the red robin feather that was behind it -sandwiched between the metal of her shield and the fabric of her uniform. She might not have understood its significance when he tried to give it to her, but Nick acted like it was something important. Something valuable. Now he was being threatened by someone because of it. Some deeply held fringe beliefs that she didn't fully understand but were no less significant. 

She thought about how upset his mother seemed when he gave her the feather. If a vixen she was familiar with, whom knew her and liked her -more or less- reacted that strongly to a non-fox taking the badge of their folk hero (idol?), then how would another fox who didn't know her, or Nick, or the nature of their partnership at all react?

Not well. That was for sure. 

Judy shot to her feet. “I'll find him. Tell the Chief what's going on.”

And she bolted from the ZPD. 

The last place Judy saw Nick was at his mother's so as she was climbing into the squad car, she MuzzleTimed the vixen to see if he was still there and if he was in trouble, make sure the old vixen was okay. 

“Officer Hopps.” She gave a polite -if a little curt- nod to her phone's camera. “To what do I owe the pleasure so soon after this morning?”

“Is Nick still with you?” Asked the bunny, not bothering to waste time of pleasantries. Even if Nick's mother didn't like her, Judy was pretty sure both of them could agree that it was far more important to find Nick and make sure he was okay than it was to tip-toe around each other's feelings.

“No. He left a little after you did.” A pause. “Why?”

“No need to worry, ma'am.” Judy assured the vixen in her best 'trust me, I'm a cop' voice. “I'm sure your son will be just fine.”

She ended the call and sped off to Nick's apartment in the Rainforest District. She threw aside his soggy door mat to get at his spare key and let herself in. “ZPD! Make your presence known!” Then, “Nick? Its me. Clawhouser said you put in a weird call. Are you okay?”

But there was no answer. 

She checked every room and concluded that the apartment was empty. The only signs of a struggled being Nick's gun taser that was left expended and not reset on the floor, and his radio nailed to the bathroom wall by an arrow. An arrow! Like from the Hunger Games or Alpha of the Rings. Clawhouser said there was a gun. But guns weren't the only things that could 'shoot'.

Judy pressed a paw over the red feather Nick had given her. Well, all this trouble did seem to revolve around the legend of Robin Hood. Why not throw in a psycho with a bow and arrows?

She pulled out her own radio. “I need a CSI team to Officer Wilde's apartment A-sap. Signs of a struggle no body's found at scene. Door was locked when I arrived, looks like Wilde might have been taken out the window. Hopps in pursuit. Request backup.” 

Then Judy left the apartment -thought he door like a civilized Mammal- to find her troublesome partner. 

…

It wasn't like the time Nick had to dash frantically through the Rainforest District. 

For starters, he wasn't running for his life. In fact, he wasn't even the one being chased. He was doing the chasing. Following a much more nimble red fox through the tree branch walkways, climbing parts of trees and structures that probably weren't meant for public pedestrian transit, and jumping on the roofs of sky tram gondolas. He was acting completely bat-guano crazy and Nick knew it. But when the Hood jumped out the window, all he could think about was keeping the vigilante fox away from his bunny.

Then again, he reflected, what was a tale of Robin Hood without a merry little chase?

The Hood sprinted down a wooden catwalk, Nick not far behind him. The path dead-ended at a temporary pedestrian barrier with a Caution sign on it that read 'Closed for tree trimming'. The Hood ignored this sign, however, and hopped right over the short pedestrian barrier. Nick followed after him. 

Beavers from city planning and capybara native to the District paused in their work, turning off saws and pawing lifts to shout warnings and profanities (mostly profanities) at the two foxes that had just charged into their hardhat zone. 

“Police business!” Nick pointed to the badge on his chest, not sure if any of them actually saw it with how fast he was moving just trying to keep up with the Hood. He had never been the most physically gifted fox in the world, but he did track and field in high school and graduated top of his class at the police academy, so Nick liked to think he was pretty fit and in shape. But this other fox was still making him work for it. 

They reached the other end of the tree trimming. The walkways and branches ending abruptly at a sheer drop down into the depths of the Rainforest. The Hood paused at the ledge, looking down, looking up, looking out. Weighing his options. 

Nick came up behind him, reaching for his taser only to realize his holster was empty, the gun left abandoned on the floor of his apartment. He pointed an authoritative finger at the hooded fox instead. “Alright Bother Hood, you've got no where else to run. Come with- Aw, hell!”

No sooner had Nick started to speak when the hooded fox gave an amused grin and jumped off the ledge, doing a showy little backflip for no other reason than to wave patronizingly at Nick as he fell. He drew an arrow from his quiver, pulled the bow back and shot the trunk of another tree close by. Nick watched more fascinated -and maybe with just a bit of admiration- when he realized there was a cable attached to that arrow and the Hood swung Tarzan-style to safety. 

“Damn. I picked the wrong extracurricular in high school.” He muttered for no one's benefit but his own. 

Now it was Nick's turn to look down, and up, and out to try and figure out how he was going to follow his quarry. The tree the Hood swung to wasn't all that far, it was just a little to far to jump to. Even if Nick went back for a running start, his best long jump distance on record still fell short. 

Then he remembered the fantastically terrifying first time he was involved in a chase in the Rainforest District. How Carrots, swinging on a vine, used the sky tram boarding platform to propel them up and out of danger. He couldn't make a straight jump to follow the Hood, but he could catch a vine and swing around to intercept his path. 

Nick got a running start. Uttered a prayer to Goodfellow -which he was sure the trickster god would just laugh at (trickster gods were like that) and threw himself off the ledge, paws out, grasping of a vine that hung just within the range of his long jump. He gripped it tightly, earning himself some hot rope burns for his effort, and swung away in the exact opposite direction he wanted to be heading. 

The vine caught under the branch of another tree and swung up. Nick let go just as his vine was cresting the branch, before he could get tangled up in it, using its momentum to sling himself to another vine which would take him where he wanted to go. The second vine swung him just over the Hood and Nick let go at just the right time to miss his target and land behind the Hood, not in front of him or on him. He grabbed at the other fox's ankles and the two of them went tumbling off the path and falling through the dense foliage.

Both foxes landed on a large leaf, big enough to hold the both of them with enough space for a bunny if she was here. 

“Ugh. You're relentless.” The Hood muttered as the leaf bend under their weight and both cop and vigilante slid off and were once again falling. 

Nick grabbed onto the Hood mid-fall just in time for the other fox to draw another cabled arrow and shoot them a lifeline. They landed on the roof of a sky tram car, startling a pair of ocelot teenagers that looked like they had been kissing before the cop and the vigilante dropped in. 

“Well, I may not think I deserve it, but I was given Goodfellow's badge for a reason.” Nick replied. 

He made a grab for the bow, trying to pull the weapon out of the other fox's paws. But the Hood in some quick thinking unstrung it, causing the wood to straighten suddenly and smack Nick in the face. He staggered for a moment, dazed, and nearly fell off the sky tram. If he hadn't dug his claws into the fiberglass of the gondola roof, Nick definitely would have fallen. 

The Hood, meanwhile, hopped down into the gondola proper -scaring the crap out of the teenagers in it. He hooked his unstrung bow over the gondola cable and used it to zip-line to the next gondola, which was blissfully empty. 

“I can't wait to meet the one you thought deserved it more!” The Hood shouted back to him. 

Reminded of why he was chasing the hooded vigilante, Nick pulled himself back up. His paws were already injured with rope burns from earlier, what's a little cable cuts on top of that. He was beginning to understand why the Hood wore gloves as part of his uniform. They were useful for other things besides not leaving behind prints. Psyching himself up and preparing for pain, Nick grabbed the sky tram cable and pulled himself along to the Hood's gondola. 

He pulled back his hood just enough for Nick to see those emerald green eyes so like his own widen in sudden admiration. “You're relentless.”

“I won't let you anywhere near her!” Nick snarled back. He let go of the cable and fell into the gondola. Almost falling on top of the Hood in the close quarters. 

Unfortunately, it was the Hood who tackled him to the floor in stead of the other way around. “'Her'?” He echoed, sounded intrigued. “You have Goodfellow's badge to a vixen? Then I definitely want to meet her. I want to meet her very much!” 

His tone did not leave much to the imagination as to his motives -which were most ungentlemanly. The idea of this guy -or anyone really- doing ungentlemanly things to his Carrots filled Nick with a righteous rage that bordered on Savage and he bit the paw that was holding him. 

“Ow! Son of a-”

Nick climbed back to his feet and spat the blood out of his mouth. “No. I gave it to a doe.”

“A deer?”

Now it was Nick's turn to tackle the other fox -just as they sky tram reached one of the Rainforest landing docks. He wrestled the Hood out of the gondola, finally getting the upper hand for once and pinning him to the ground. 

“Put your paws on your head and spread your legs.” Nick kicked the bow away and knelt to pat the Hood down for other weapons as he read him his miranda rights. “You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney-”

“Nick!” 

Both foxes looked up to see the small gray bunny in the police uniform coming towards them. 

“Carrots.” Nick muttered suddenly wishing she hadn't come. 

While at the exact same time, the Hood said, “Officer Hopps.” 

His eyes darted from the bunny's concerned face to the badge over her chest and the little bit of red that was just poking out from behind it. Just a little bit of crimson on a diagonal at the top and bottom. A robin's feather. Goodfellow's badge. The mark of a Robin under the Hood. Nick had given it to her! Not a doe-deer, a doe-bunny. He gave the badge of Robin Hood to a bunny! That was inexcusable. 

In hind sight, Nick's big mistake was not cuffing the Hood the moment he got the other fox on the ground. 

The vigilante rolled over onto his back and kicked Nick in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and forcing the fox-cop back. The Hood retrieved his bow before lunging at the bunny. One paw outstretched, claws extended, to the shield on her chest and the feather behind it. 

“That's mine!”


	5. Rescue Fair Maiden

In hind sight, Nick's big mistake was not cuffing the Hood the moment he got the other fox on the ground. 

The vigilante rolled over onto his back and kicked Nick in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and forcing the cop-fox away. The Hood retrieved his bow before lunging at the bunny. One paw outstretched -claws extended- grasping for the shield on her chest and the feather behind it. 

“That's mine!” He closed a paw over the shield, claws digging into the fabric webbing covering the kevlar vest. 

Eyes wide with shock at the sudden attack, Judy didn't think, she just acted. Letting her prey instincts for self preservation take hold of her. She lifted both feet and landed a hard two footed kick to the red fox's collar bone. The Hood was thrown backwards, accompanied by the sound of strained fibers and ripping fabric. 

Judy climbed to her feet. She was fine. But her shield had been ripped from her chest, and with it, Robin Goodfellow's badge. 

She looked down at the patch of exposed kevlar where her shield and the red feather had been. Then up at Nick. He might have given it to her, but he was the one it actually carried meaning for. Some archaic aspect of Vulpine culture she was only just beginning to understand. He gave it to her, making it sound like it was something hallowed and honored and now she had just lost it to a criminal in a hood. 

Glaring, she turned her attention to said hooded criminal. Knocked back from the force of her rabbit kick, he lay on his back, the vinyl hood of his green vest thrown back to show his face clearly for all to see. Judy recognized him instantly. The fox that had come in earlier just that day looking for Nick. “Robert Loxley!”

“What?” Nick came up to her, one arm wrapped around his mid-section where Loxley had kicked him. “But I thought Loxley died.”

“The sixth one did, yes.” Judy nodded. She had been doing enough Loogling today to know. “This must be Robert Loxley the seventh, his son.”

“Grandson.” Loxley corrected. He started pushing himself back to his feet only to realize that he now held Judy's shield in his paw, and sandwiched in the shield was the feather of Robin Goodfellow. The badge of a Robin under the Hood. He pulled the feather out carefully -almost reverently. “But you can call me 'Robin'.”

A low, angry growl was felt more than heard and it took Judy far longer than it should have to realize the sound was coming from Nick. “The Robin mantel has to be earned! You can't just take it!”

The bunny placed what she hoped was a calming paw on the fox's arm. She still felt like an outsider to all of this, but she recognized actions and artifacts of power when she saw them. To her it was just a stupid feather and the name of a children's story character. To him... it was much more. “This is really important to you.”

He took his eyes off Loxley just long enough to turn to her. “Its my history.”

“Okay then.” That was about all the warning she gave before spinning around, drawing her own ZPD issued taser gun and shooting Loxley square in the chest. She was a lot quicker than Nick and a better shot too. He might have been top marksman in his graduating class, but she was top marksman in the precent. (Someone in her size-class had to be, couldn't take chances with larger Mammals.)

The taser bolts stuck in the vinyl of Loxley's vest and the wires between them lip up with blue sparks. Loxley looked down at the taser bolts in alarm that quickly melted into relief. 

“Vinyl.” Plastic. 

He was insulated. 

And that hadn't even been a design feature of his outfit. He wanted a material that looked like leather because the original Robin Hood wore leather. But a Mammal can't go walking around in this day and age wearing someone else's skin! So, all the leather parts of the uniform were replaced with vinyl and as an added bonus, he was protected from tasers. 

“Should have shot him in the arm!” Nick growled. 

“Oh, how was I supposed to know his shirt gave him a plus-10 against Thundaga.” The bunny rolled her eyes. 

Pulling up his hood, Loxley slid the feather into place through two loops that were designed specifically for it. Then he tossed Judy's badge back to her. It landed at the bunny's feet with a distinctive clink of metal on wood. “Looks like Goodfellow's already favoring me with his luck.” He said. “You can have that back. I already have the only badge worth anything.”

That was the thing that really set Judy off. 

If another Mammal held personal beliefs that placed importance on other symbols or talismans, fine. Every citizen of Zootopia was free to hold and practice what they believed. But that did not give a Mammal the right to insult the symbols or talismans that other Mammals held dear -and Judy held her position at the ZPD and the shield that went along with it very dear to her heart. She spent the better part of fifteen years -that majority of her life so far- working towards that one goal, and nobody got to insult that! Not Nick, not the Chief, and especially not some foreign hooded vigilante with delusions of grandeur. 

Yanking a riot baton from her belt, Judy launched herself at the Hood. “I'll show you what a ZPD badge is worth!”

The first blow caught the fox in the shins and sent him tumbling to the floor. The second blow was to the back, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him down further. She grabbed a first full of his green hood -and a bit of the ear underneath it- and pulled his head up to look at her. “Breaking and entering, assault, theft and resisting arrest!” 

The paw gripping his hood -and his ear- also happened to be wrapped around the feather in its loops. She shoved Loxley's head back down and pulled the feather free, holding it out for Nick. 

He took it gladly, relief from a tension he didn't even know he had flooding his body. Nick slipped the feather behind his own shield. He still wasn't sure that he actually deserved it, but -for the moment at least- he could keep it safe from others even less worthy than himself who tried to take it. His paws free, the fox did what he should have done earlier and pulled his cuffs from his belt. “Carrots, maybe instead of redefining 'excessive force' and 'police brutality', we could just arrest the guy?”

He offered the fox-sized cuffs out to his bunny partner. 

Seeing the cuffs, Loxley grabbed the bunny before she could take them. He held her against him, one paw around her delicate little neck so that she couldn't bite him. Getting bitten once by Wilde was enough for him. The other paw held her ankles so that she couldn't kick him again. Given their position, she would have hit someplace much more sensitive than his collar bone. 

“I can't believe you tried giving Goodfellow's badge to a bunny!” The hooded fox snarled. 

Nick froze. He and Judy didn't have the upper hand anymore. Loxley had a hostage. Switching tactics, Nick tried talking the other fox down. “You make it sound so crazy. But don't you remember one of the original Robin's right hand Mammals was also a bunny.”

That's right. Remind him that bunnies have always figured into the Robin Hood legends. The original Robin Hood had Skippy, the white rabbit whom was also an aspiring archer. The Scarlet Pimpernel had Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, and Zorro had Frey Felipe. No matter which Robin under the Hood you looked at, bunnies always figured heavily into their tales. Was it really such a stretch to imagine a bunny being given the title some day?

“You don't have to remind me about Skippy of Nottingham.” Loxley growled. Then his frown melted into a taunting -almost cruel- sneer. “Who do you think Robin and Marian ate for their wedding feast?”

The bottom dropped out of Nick's stomach. “That's not funny!”

Loxley rubbed the side of his face against Judy's cheek, exaggerating an inhale of her scent. “Bunny... smells so yummy...”

Judy's eyes went wide with alarm and she struggled in Loxley's arms, a paw reaching for the small canister of fox replant that wasn't there. She hadn't carried it since she reconciled with Nick. 

“Don't even play like that!” Less than a year since they took down Bellwether, those kinds of jokes were not the least bit amusing. They reminded Nick just a little to much of 'what could have been' if they hadn't thought up that spur-of-the-moment plan to swap the Night Howler for some blueberries. Nick would never admit it during his waking hours, but he occasionally had nightmares about the 'what ifs' of that night. “Let her go!”

“Or you'll what? Continue to whine like a little kit?” Loxley taunted. He tightened his grip on Judy's throat just enough to deter her from fighting back. She might be small, but the Hood already learned that she was deceptively dangerous. “But I'm not unreasonable. I'll trade you for her.” He held out a paw. “Your pet bunny for Goodfellow's badge.”

One paw flew to his chest, right over his own ZPD shield and the red feather behind it. Two badges that meant as much to Nick as Judy did. But Goodfellow's feather was sent to him. It was entrusted to him. That meant that he was obligated to safeguard the values the feather represented and the meaning it carried for the vulpine community. He couldn't just give it away to a thug and bully who didn't respect everything that it stood for. 

But he couldn't just stand there while the other predator had his claws around the delicate and vulnerable throat of his partner, best friend, and the bunny who changed his life. 

Nick hesitated a little too long. 

“Perhaps you need a little time to think about it...” Loxley suggested. He backed himself -still holding Judy- up to the edge of the sky tram platform. “I'll shoot you a message of where to meet. Don't take to long deciding, okay. I might get hungry.”

And with that, the Hooded fox jumped off the platform -taking Judy with him. 

Nick ran to the edge, heart in his throat. He peered down to see the green clad form plummeting through the foliage. He let go of Judy long enough to notch an arrow in his bow -another of the cabled kind with rope attached (where did he get all of those?)- but in free fall the bunny didn't have much opportunity to get away from him. Loxley's arm was around her again in moments and then they were swinging off. Away from Nick. He lost sight of them in the denser lower levels of the forest. 

That was when their back-up finally showed up. Delgato, Grizzoli, and Fangmeyer. The three of them lead by Chief Bogo. 

“Wilde!” The water buffalo snapped. “Where's Hopps? What the heck happened?”

Nick didn't even know where to begin. 

…

It was frustrating that the fox didn't answer -or couldn't answer. The difference was nuanced and Chief Bogo didn't care to examine that nuance -especially not at this moment when he had an officer missing. It took the entire drive back to the station and several minutes pacing the Chief's office before the fox finally spoke. 

“How much do you know about foxes?” Wilde asked spontaneously after several minutes of ignoring his superior's impatient and hostile glares. 

“They're small, irritate me, and have no respect for proper police procedure.” Bogo supplied. Admittedly, his sample pool of foxes he interacted with regularly was pretty much limited to just Officer Nickolas P. Wilde. So it was entirely possible that his perceptions were skewed. 

In spite of his rattled nerves and anxiety over his favorite bunny being kidnapped by a fanatical member of an ancient Robin Hood cult, Nick found himself cracking a smug smile. Channeling his pre-Judy self's philosophy of 'never let them see they get to you'. “Aw, Chief... You say the sweetest things.”

The water buffalo slammed his fists on the desk, making the wood groan and shaking stacks of papers and files. Bogo exhaled loudly through his nostrils, sending a jet of warm air to ruffle the fox's fur in an uncomfortable way. “Damn it, Wilde! One of my officers is missing and you are the only witness. So tell me something! Or, so help me, I will strip you of your badge and send you back to selling marginally legal ice cream on the street!”

“It wasn't ice cream.” The fox muttered. 

“Wilde!” Bogo snarled, almost shouted. 

“I'm thinking of a plan!” Nick snapped, forgetting that this would not reassure the brass tacks Chief of Police. 

“I didn't ask you for a plan.” The buffalo growled, low and threatening. His patience with the fox was almost worn out. “I asked you what happened. You've been acting strange all day, absent from roll call, Hopps says for bereavement but you don't look very bereaved to me, Clawhouser bursts into my office saying you're being held at gunpoint, several calls about disturbances in Rainforest District come in as a result of your little chase, and now Hopps is missing. So, I'll ask you again -and this will be the last time- what happened?”

Nick hesitated again. The Brotherhood of the Hood and badge of Robin Goodfellow were fox things. One didn't generally discuss them openly and candidly with other, non-vulpine, Mammals. He was willing to share with Judy because she was his partner and practically a fox in all but body -a sort of honorary fox. That, and if he wanted her to be the Robin under the Hood she would need to know what it meant. But Westley Bogo was a different story. 

Still, he had to say something. The glare the Chief was giving him was just one step below 'murderous'. 

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to settle his nerves and get his thoughts together, Nick attempted an explanation. “This morning I got an envelope in the mail. The return address was from an estate from the Old Country that I am distantly related to. It was a legal envelope, so I assumed it was some version of an inheritance. Instead, all that was in there was...” Here the fox hesitated. But he'd already began. He should at least finish the bit that he started. It wasn't like no one knew about the feather. Delgato held it up for all to see. Nick pulled Goodfellow's badge out from behind his ZPD shield. “All there was inside was this.”

He held the feather up for the buffalo to see clearly. 

There was a beat of silence. 

The Chief continued to glare. 

Nick was at a loss as to how to continue. 

“I'm hoping this will eventually lead into why you were attacked in your home and Hopps is gone.” Bogo informed him in his best 'keep talking or lose your job' voice. 

“It's...” The fox began, slipping Goodfellow's badge back behind his shield. “Its hard to explain...”

“Try.” The buffalo commanded. 

Opening his mouth, Nick took a breath. But before another awkward syllable could escape his lips there was a knock on the office door. Without waiting for a reply, Officer Delgato turned the handle and slipped inside. Before the Chief could object or reprimand him for interrupting, the lion held up a file. “I promise, this is relevant.”

Nick was glad for the distraction. Even more so when the Chief gave a slight nod for Delgato to explain himself before he was kicked out. 

“I was the one who opened Wilde's letter this morning.” He began as he flipped open the file he carried and pulled out a photograph. “I thought the seal looked familiar, but I couldn't place where I'd seen it before. Then it hit me when the DA called to make sure the Bellwether files would be ready for pick-up on Monday. It was in Lionheart's office.” 

He passed the photo to the Chielf. Nick was just a little too short to see it and he glared up at the larger Mammals' belt buckles, willing them to drop it or something so that he could see what they were talking about. 

“After the arrests at Cliffside, you sent me and Fangmeyer to search his office at City Hall. It was on the wall right under Lionheart's coat of arms.”

“What does this have to do with anything?” Bogo asked. He lowered the arm holding the evidence photo, pinching the bridge of his snout with the other. That was when Nick finally got a look at what they were talking about. 

It was an evidence photo from the Missing Mammal case. A wide shot of Liodore Lionheart's office focussing on the wall behind his desk. There were his bachelors degrees in sociology, political sciences, and law, as well as numerous plaques and awards for charitable events or similar philanthropic endeavors. But above everything was a large framed piece of rough woven and very old looking linen embroidered with the coat of arms of the Lionheart. The original Lionheart. Nick vaguely remembered some rumor floating around election season that claimed Liodore was actually a descendant of the Lionheart. At the time, the fox neither believed it, not actually cared. 

But under the almost authentic looking coat of arms, in a slightly smaller frame, was an entirely different crest. An arrow and a bow embroidered with gold thread over a background of dark forest green. The Loxley family crest, but also -and more importantly- the symbol for the Brotherhood of the Hood. Lionheart might not have been a fox, but he was a Brother of the Hood. (That actually also gave more credence to his claim of being descended from the original Lionheart, but that was neither here not there.)

“I thought it was familiar, but I didn't recognize it at first.” Delgato continued. “But that symbol in combination with the Lionheart-” 'the Lionheart' here was talking about the king of the Old Country, not Liodore “-can only mean one thing. The trickster of the Greenwood who stole so much tax money that he nearly bankrupt the Old Country and prevented Prince John from being able to pay the ransom that was demanded for the Lionheart's safe return.”

“What!?” Nick was insulted. He'd never heard Robin Hood be described as such a... villain. “How could you possibly think that!?”

Delgato gave an unconcerned shrug. “Every lion knows the story of the traitor who nearly cost the Lionheart his life.”

“You and I, Degato. When this is all over, we're gonna have words.” Nick was about in inch away from attacking the larger predator's kneecaps.

Bogo subtly dissuaded him. Handing the photo back to the cat, moving in a way that oh-so-casually placed himself between fox and lion, whom replaced the picture back in his file. “I'm still waiting to see what this has to do with my city.”

“Clearly, the one who attacked Wilde in his apartment is a member of the Cult of the Hood and wants what was sent to him.” Delgato finished. 

That wasn't actually to far from the truth. As insulted as Nick was, having his people's hero called a traitor and a villain, and the Brotherhood of the Hood called a cult, he did have to admit that -with the little amount of information he had to go on- the lion managed to deduce most of what was actually going on. Still, that didn't stop him form protesting the insult.

“Its not a cult!” He shouted up at the larger predator, climbing onto the chair in front of Bogo's desk to be at a closer hight to them. “Its a loosely connected system of beliefs based off of historical events with a dollop of mysticism thrown in the mix.”

They paused to look at him for a moment. Requarding him quietly. Then Bogo summed up, “One of my officers was attacking in his own home...” a skeptical pause, “...for a feather.”

Both buffalo and lion watched the fox, silently demanding further explanation.

Placing a paw over his ZPD shield and the badge of Goodfellow behind it, Nick took another deep breath. “Its not just a feather -for foxes. Its not just a feather for foxes. Its the mark of Robin Goodfellow. It identifies a Robin under the Hood. There are lost of Brothers of the Hood -what Delgato's calling a 'Cult of the Hood'- but in each generation there's only ever one Robin... Hood.”

There was another beat of silence. 

They stared at him, struck silent by the sheer absurdity of his statement. 

Then Bogo snorted. 

Nick had never heard the buffalo laugh before. He didn't know the buffalo knew how. 

“Wilde, are you telling me that you are Robin Hood?”

His paw tightened over the badge -both badges. He didn't think he was worthy. Didn't deserve the honor. He might have saved one city, but that was just a one-off thing. A fluke. He wasn't really a hero. But the badge had been sent to him. Of all the foxes of his generation -including Loxley's own grandson- he was chosen to receive Goodfellow's feather. That had to mean something, right? 

“Someone thinks I should be.” The fox deadpanned, glaring at his superior and his colleague with deadly seriousness. “And someone else disagrees. That's why Carrots- Hopps, that's why Officer Hopps was taken. He wants to make a trade. Goodfellow's badge for Judy.”

Delgato scoffed. “Oh, just give him the stupid feather, Wilde.”

“We don't negotiate with kidnappers.” Bogo reminded his officer. To Nick he said, “I don't like vigilantes or violent fanatics in my town. You mentioned you had a plan.”

Nick smiled. “That depends. Does the ZPD armory stock bows and arrows?”


	6. Gearing Up

Judy was no fool. In mid-free fall was not the time for an ill conceived and poorly thought out escape attempt. Mid-free fall was the time to hold tightly to the Mammal with the rope and hope he doesn't reconsider your value as a hostage and just drop you to be free of the dead weight. She gripped the vinyl of his vest, face pressed into his chest. He smelled of linen and pleather with a distinctive musk that was all fox, but for some reason it was far less pleasant than Nick's natural musk. 

The moment Loxley's paws touched down on solid ground, the bunny pushed away from him. “Let me go!”

One punch to the jaw and a kick to the stomach and she fell from the vigilante fox's arms. He groaned in pain, irritation, and a reasonable amount of exhaustion. He yanked hard on the cable they just swung on, detachment it from the arrow that was stuck to deep in the tree trunk to ever be pulled free again. He coiled the cable around his arm. “I don't know how Wilde can put up with you.”

She reached to her belt for another weapon. Her taser was gone, her riot baton was gone, even her radio was in absence. She didn't carry fox repellent around any more, so all Judy had left was a spare battery back for the taser she didn't have and her cuffs. These she drew from the belt. Holding one ring, the bunny swung the short chain in a wide arch -extending her arm perhaps more than she should have- and clocked the fox in the side of the head with the other ring. 

Absorbing the inertia so that the chain didn't arch back and his herself, Judy twirled the cuffs. Spending the momentum until she held both ends safely in her paws, chain pulled tight as she glared at Loxley. 

“I'm clever and resourceful!” She snapped at the hooded fox. “Nick's lucky to have me!”

Rubbing his head where the cuffs connected, he glared right back at the bunny. She might be resourceful, but she wasn't smart. A smart prey would have taken this opportunity to run from him. Not hang around to banter. Loxley took the coiled cable and swung it rather like a whip. Like a proper Zorro. He wasn't nearly as polished with the cable as Judy was with her cuffs, but it offered the Hood longer reach. 

Judy jumped back to avoid her nose being clipped by the sharp wire cable. Loxley raised his arm, swinging the cable for another pass. This one coming from the side. Judy also jumped to avoid this one, moving to the side just ahead of the cable. But she was paying more attention to the fox and his makeshift weapon than she was where she was jumping and the bunny soon found that what they were standing on wasn't nearly as wide and she originally thought. One foot slipped off the side and she would have tumbled over the edge if her enemy hadn't caught her. 

Dropping the cable, the Hood rushed forward and closed one clawed paw around Judy's ankle and pulled her back up. 

“Carful now. Wilde won't give me what I want if you're dead.” Loxley reached for his cable and began tying her up. Feet first, then paws and shoulders. “You're my bargaining chip.”

“Then what was all that about eating me?” The bunny demanded. 

Hoisting her over one shoulder, Loxley waved off her concerns with an unaffected tsk. “That was just banter. Mammals don't eat other Mammals. That's just sick. Although... Wilde did seem to take it unusually seriously.”

She was draped over the fox's shoulder like a sack of potatoes, head tilted down his back, so she had to both raise herself a little bit as well as turn her head to even attempt to look at him when she said, “You have no idea why Nick was given the Robin mantel, do you?”

“He took down two corrupt city leaders in the space of a few month.” The Hood replied, unconcerned. “Grandfather read about it in the paper -I know, right. Who still reads the paper in this day and age? In a moment of senility brought on by his failing health, he sent Goodfellow's badge to Wilde.”

That last statement sounded uncommonly bitter to Judy. But she didn't feel like drumming up any sympathy for this fox to care enough to wonder why. After breaking into her partner's apartment, assaulting said partner, causing several disturbances in the Rainforest District, and know kidnapping her and holding her ransom, the bunny cop found herself completely unwilling to sympathize with the hooded vigilante. 

Instead, she decided to continue arguing. She couldn't fight him tied up like this. But she could at least annoy the crap out of him. “So, you don't actually know what the corrupt mayors were doing, or what Nick had to do to stop them?”

“Don't care, actually.”

They were heading north, to the Meadowlands district. There were cameras all over the city. Judy wondered how exactly Loxley planned to get her wherever it was he was taking her without being seen. 

“Bellwether -the second mayor- was drugging predators so that they went Savage and attacked the Mammals around them. Attacked them, and tried to eat them!” Judy announced. She felt just a little gratified when he skipped a step at that announcement, throwing off his rhythm. To his credit, though, Loxley recovered quickly without saying a word. So, Judy continued. “Lionheart -the first mayor- was covering it up and when we exposed that, he got removed from office and Bellwether took over. We didn't know at the time it was her causing the Savage outbreaks. We didn't find out until literally the last hour of the case.”

The Hood have a soft hmph, and the bunny couldn't tell if it was a laugh of derision or an unconcerned snort to indicate that he didn't care. 

Either way, Judy pressed on, determined to make the fox see that Nick was far more deserving of whatever honor they were fighting over. “You wanna know how Nick and I finally took Bellwether down? Nick pretended to be affected by the drug and acted Savage. He chased me around, snarling, teeth showing, drool dripping from his mouth... It was actually legitimately frightening. All the while, Bellwether was giving us the cliché bad guy speech where they spell out the whole plan. Then Nick pretended to kill me. Jaws on my neck and everything. Clearly, I'm fine. He didn't even bite down, really. But I know he has nightmares about it sometimes. Just like he still has nightmares about being muzzled when he was nine.”

She thrashed her body a bit, trying to wiggle in a way that would allow her bound feet to kick Loxley somewhere uncomfortable. 

“So don't make jokes about eating other Mammals around him!” Judy commanded. “They're not funny! He's a vegetarian for crackers' sake!”

The Hood rolled his eyes. A vegetarian predator. Could Wilde be any less worthy of Goodfellow's badge? Loxley hefted the bunny on his shoulder. She might be small, but she wasn't exactly light. They entered the underpass that connected the Rainforest District to the Meadowlands. Loxley followed the path until they made it to a service tunnel. Then he turned, away from surveillance cameras and the Meadowlands or Rainforest District. 

…

The ZPD armory did not stock bows and arrows. 

Luckily, his status as officer in the city's police department gave him an open-carry license and permit to purchase semi-lethal weapons for personal use. He'd never exercised this right before, and felt very awkward walking into the sporting goods store that catered to small Mammals. He walked right up to the counter, took off his aviator shades, and leaned on the glass display case, offering his best 'casual and easy going cop' grin. “Hey, I need-”

“Please, no leaning on the glass.” Said the Mammal behind the counter. A sand colored culpeo with a nick in one ear. She took out a bottle of glass cleaner and roll of paper towels. Without even looking at Nick, she sprayed the non-existent smudge he hadn't caused on the display case and began scrubbing furiously. 

Blinking in mild disbelief, Nick stared at her scrub for a moment before shaking his head as if to wake up from a daze. He tapped the glass right in front of the culpeo's nose, forcing her to look back up at him. “Hey, excuse me.” Channeling his inner Carrots, he tapped the brass badge on his chest. “Officer Nick Wilde, ZPD. Hi. How ya doing?”

She blinked at the shield, eyes narrowing at the red feather poking out from behind it. She pointed, keeping her clawed paw far enough away so as not to be in danger of accidentally scraping the shield or the feather behind it. “Is that... is that a robin's feather...”

Ears folded back with hesitation and a perfectly healthy amount of skepticism she raised her eyes to look at Nick's face. Really look at him. A red fox, wearing a robin feather -literally- as a badge. She seemed to remember something in the news about a fox helping to stop the Savage outbreaks and apprehend the corrupt government official. 

“Oh my Goodfellow! Are you-”

“A customer waiting for service.” Nick supplied before she could finish her question. He was running out of patience with Mammals asking him if he was Robin Hood. He didn't think he was, but so long as he still carried the red plume, what he thought of himself didn't seem to matter. “I need a bow.” 

“Uh. Uh. Of course!” She left the glass cleaner and paper towel forgotten on the counter as she rushed to present him with a selection of fancy looking hunting bows. Carbon fiber, and stainless steel, and lightweight aluminum. Long bows, short bows, cross bows, collapsable for easy transport. 

Nick blinked at the selection. He had no idea there was so much variety in the world of bows. The fox was honestly just expecting a bendy piece of wood with s string. “Uh...”

“Are you looking for something lightweight and compact that can easily be carried while jumping from rooftops in the pursuit of truth, justice, liberty, and more relaxed tax laws for the economically disadvantaged?” 

Nick stared at her.

The culpeo pause. Glanced again, taking in his police uniform and ZPD shield. She released an awkward laugh. “Or, uh, are you just looking for a normal hunting bow because turkey season is in a few months and that's a perfectly normal and legitimate thing that Mammals do with semi-lethal weapons. Not like that other thing I said. Which is completely crazy. Am I right?” Another awkward laugh. 

He massaged his temples, ears folding in exasperation. “Look, I just need something bendable with a string that will shoot a sharp stick at something.”

Several minutes later, he exited the store with a lightweight aluminum bow and a quiver of arrows with bright nylon fletching. He hopped into the squad car that was waiting outside for him, Delgato at the wheel. 

“Well, that took forever.” The lion commented. “What happened, you shoot yourself in the foot?”

“Shut-up, Simba.” The fox growled. He was in no mood to explain that the Mammal behind the counter was also a species of fox and he made the mistake of wearing Goodfellow's badge into the shop. But then, he wasn't about to take it off. So, he might as well get used to that reaction from other foxes so long as he had it. “Lets just get back to the station and wait for Loxley's call for when and where to meet.”

…

Loxley didn't put Judy down until they finally got to his destination. An upscale looking hotel in the city's center. The hooded fox entered through a back entrance and took a service freight elevator up several floors. They exited out onto a wide, well lit hallway with red carpeting, ecru colored walls, and identical doors lining the hall in both directions. The only thing to distinguish them from one another where the numbers polished to a golden shine. 

Shifting her from one shoulder to the other, Loxley fished in his pocket, pulled out a card key, and let them into a room. 

Judy was thrown down on a wide bed and then promptly ignored as Loxley similarly set down his bow and quiver of arrows, pulling the hood down off his head. Opening the room's mini-fridge, the fox pulled out an instant cold pack and disappeared into the bathroom. 

Now out of sight of her captor, the bunny wriggled herself up into a sitting position. She glared at the cable binding her ankles, legs, wrists, arms... just about everything really. It was twisted wire -metal- not nylon or polyester cord. Not anything she could chew through. In fact, the only thing preventing the cable from cutting into her wrists and ankles were the bands that she wore. She wasn't going to be getting out of her bindings anytime soon. 

With a huff and a sigh, Judy made a very un-bunny like growl and flopped back down on the bed. 

A few minutes later, Loxley emerged from the bathroom. No longer wearing his hooded vest, a bandage wrapped around one paw where Nick had bit him and the instant cold-pack pressed to his collar bone where she had kicked him. Whatever first aid he was doing on himself done, the fox selected one of the cute little bottles from the mini-bar and took a long sip... that completely drained the whole tiny bottle. He selected a second one, this one actually pouring into a glass like a civilized Mammal. He swirled the drink around as he assessed his hostage. 

“If I untie you, are you going to attack me again?”

“If you don't untie me, I'll eventually have to pee and then won't that be a mess all over this expensive looking bedspread.” Judy shot back. 

Loxley only gave an unconcerned shrug. Taking a sip from his glass before he replied. “All I'll have to do is just call housekeeping to change it for me while we're out making the trade with Wilde.” A pause. “That is, assuming I read him right and he cares about you as much as he does the Robin mantel. If he doesn't... well, that'll be a problem for you.”

Judy refused to be intimidated. “I hope you know that you have kidnapped and are detaining a member of the Zootopia Police Department. Do you even know how much jail time you're gonna serve for this?”

“None.” He shrugged. 

“What?” Judy blinked at him, disbelieving.

Peering back into the mini-fridge, Loxley added an ice cube to his drink, then pulled out a bag of grapes and something that looked like a meat stick. He took a large bite of the processed bug and fish protein stick before crossing the space between them and holding a grape in front of the bunny's lips. “Don't bite me, or else I might rethink my hospitality.”

She did not accept the offered grape. Instead Judy just stared at him. “After everything you've done already, you think you're gonna get away scot free?”

Loxley shoved the grape in her mouth, more to just shut her up than out of any actual hospitality or concern that she might be hungry after the day she's had. “Two words, bunny. Diplomatic. Immunity.”

At her silent blink of disbelief the fox continued. 

“I am an Earl of the Old Country, filthy rich, and personal friends with Prince Hairy.” Loxley informed her. “And if there's one thing I know about your country's judicial system, its that the rich and privileged don't have to suffer consequences for anything.”

“Well.” Judy said, swallowing the grape so that she could speak clearly. “Then I guess its a good thing I'm personal friends with Robin Hood.”

After all, making sure the rich and privileged suffered consequences for their corrupt actions was kind of Robin Hood's specialty.

He snarled at her wordlessly. Loxley tossed his ice pack back in the mini-fridge and pulled his hooded vest back on. Picking up his bow and quiver, he moved to the door. Pausing just long enough to tell his hostage, “I'm going to set up the exchange. Try not to soil the bed while I'm gone.”

And he left. 

Judy was all alone, tied up so thoroughly that all her struggling succeeded in was making her do a rather uncanny impression of a caterpillar. 

…

Nick snagged a doughnut from Clawhouser when he and Delgato returned to the station. He hadn't eaten much all day and was starting to feel it. 

“Chief wants you both back in his office as soon as you're back.” The cheetah informed them. “Since you're back, I guess that would be right now.”

No sooner had these words escaped Clawhouser's doughnut filled mouth than the Chief himself poked his head out of his office door and and shouted. “Wilde! Delgato! My office! Now!”

Sometimes Nick wondered if the water buffalo knew how to vocalize a sentence longer than three syllables. 

Both lion and fox did as told. Filing into the Chief's office and shutting the door behind them. The Chief noted the shiny new bow Wilde carried and raised an eyebrow at he. He knew the fox had gone out specifically to acquire one, but for some reason, the buffalo just didn't think the rookie fox would follow through. Clearly, he had underestimated Wilde's ability to follow through where his 'loosely connected beliefs based one historical events and mysticism' were concerned. Either that, or Wilde's ability to follow through where rescuing Hopps was concerned. They were a tad close -even for partners- especially for rookie partners. 

“You have all the right licenses and permits for that?” Bogo asked.

“Yes, sir.” The fox nodded. “But just to put you at ease, after we rescue Carro- Hopps, you can personally audit all of the paperwork I have on this thing. The Mammal that sold it to me was very enthusiastic.”

“The fox took forever in the store.” Delgato groaned. “Probably chanting nonsense with another Hood Cult member.”

“You are being remarkably intolerant and unhelpful.” Nick snapped back, glaring up at the lion's belt buckle due to their extreme hight difference. 

Bogo pinched the bridge of his snout in an attempt to stave off an on-coming stress headache. “Enough! I don't care!” He glared at the two predators until they backed off from one another and demurred under his scrutiny. He lifted something from his desk. A piece of card stock paper, heavily creased like it had been folded and twisted. “This arrived for you while you were gone, Wilde.” He reached a second hoof to lift something else off the desk. This time it was an arrow. “It was delivered on this. I don't appreciate vigilantes shooting projectiles into by building. Someone could have been hurt.”

Nick raised a brow. “You're blaming me for something someone else did?”

“Wilde!” The Chief shoved the paper at the fox. “This fanatic is after you. Hurry up and take him down. I want this nut-job off my streets.”

Nick read the instructions on the card stock. “Alright. I'm off to rescue fair Lady!”

“And take Delgato with you.” Bogo added. “You might need the backup and theres no telling if Hopps will be in any condition to preform when you retrieve her.” 

Fox and lion glanced at each other, skeptical and unsure. Neither one was really looking forward to working with the other.


	7. Obligatory Shooting Contest

In addition to the bow and quiver of arrows, Nick also replenished his duty belt with a new radio, and replaced his spent taser with a dart gun with a full clip of tranquilizer darts dosed for a Mammal of a fox's relative size. Since Loxley's stupid vinyl vest apparently insulated him from the taser, Nick decided darts would be more effective. 

That, and they also figured into his plan. 

“So, what is your plan?” Delgato asked from the driver's seat, the lion filling three times as much space as the bunny did. 

“Rescue Hopps, arrest the Hood, and protect the Robin mantel.” Nick said as if this should have been obvious. 

The lion sighed next to him. “Wilde, that's not a plan. That's a list of objectives. C'mon. I don't like you and you don't like me, but we gotta work together on this one. I might not be Hopps, but I am a good cop. Clue me in on your process.” He adjusted the rearview mirror to glance at the brand shiny and new bow in the back seat. “Do you even know how to use that thing? What if you accidentally shoot the hostage.”

The very idea made Nick tense in his seat. Shoot Carrots? No. That was not gonna happen. That was not an option. That was not part of the plan. In an effort to hide the fact that Delgato's scenario really got to him, the fox stretched in his seat and offered a lopsided grin. “Well, then I guess we wouldn't have to worry about him threatening the hostage anymore.”

“Wilde!” The lion snapped. “Is everything a game to you?”

“Relax.” The fox waved off his concerns. “I'm not going to shoot the bow. I'm going to show him the bow.”

“And what? You think he'll trade us Hopps for that piece of crap instead?” Delgato shook his head. “You're living in a fairy tale, Wilde.” A pause. “But, then again, you do idolize a nine hundred-year-old criminal whom was a thief and a terrorist.”

“About that...” They were trapped in a car together with not much else to do except talk. Now was as good an opportunity as any to have this discussion. “Where do you get off-!?”

“Imma stop you right there, Wilde.” Delgato held up a paw, not taking his eyes off the road as he cut the fox off mid-accusation. “The fact that you don't even have a rudimentary grasp of 8th grade history kinda bothers me. First of all, there was a war going on. Wars are expensive. Not only are wars expensive, but this war was going half they way to the other side of the known world at the time and travel is also expensive. Where do you think the money for the Lionheart's war was going to come from? How do you think the Old Country's royal coffers got filled? Do you even know how the feudal system worked?”

Nick opened his mouth to protest -or perhaps to just argue. Truth be told, while he had continued to attend school even after beginning his career as a hustler, he never really applied himself very much. Just did the minimum required to stay on the track team and not draw to much attention from the adults around him beyond that. So, no, he didn't have that great a grasp of 8th grade history. But he knew his vulpine history. As a Longstride his mother had seen to that. 

The lion didn't even give him the chance to object. He blazed on, unconcerned with the fox's thoughts on the matter. “And all that was before he was captured by the Norman and held ransom. Where do you think that money as supposed to come from? Your precious trickster fae? No. It was gonna come from the exact same place the money that funded the Crusade came from. Your hooded fox brought all that to grinding halt, nearly bankrupt the country, and nearly cost the Lionheart his return home and his life.”

Glaring, Nick waited one... two... three beats to make sure the lion wasn't about to say more and cut him off again. “Are you done?”

“You may now prepare your counter arguments.” Delgato nodded. He might not agree with the fox and -to be completely honest- might not actually like the fox either. But he understood that in a debate one had to give their opposition the chance to say their piece and argue for their side. 

“Okay. Its great to sit here, safe in our modern society and near-utopian city, and tell each other how things really were almost a thousand years ago, when -really- we have no way of knowing empirically.” Began the fox. “So I'm not gonna talk about how Prince John was taxing his citizens into starvation for money that may or may not have actually gone to the Lionheart's war or ransom. Instead, I'm gonna remind you of one historically verifiable fact: when the Lionheart did return to the Old Country, he pardoned the Robin and returned his title and property to him. So, regardless of what you think, your precious Lionheart agreed that Robin was a hero.”

Delgato scoffed. “That was just political savvy on his part. Your vigilante had become so popular by that point that the Lionheart would have had a rebellion on his paws -and that was the last thing he wanted at the time since he was planning a revenge war against the Normans who imprisoned him.”

The lion regretting half his statement the moment he finished. He should have stopped right after 'political savvy'. The added mention of starting another war -for petty revenge- probably didn't make the Lionheart sound much better than the hooded fox. 

“Also, the Lionheart needed the Robin for said revenge war.” The fox smirked sideways at Delgato, peering out the corner of his aviator shades as if he'd won something. What did the fox even need the aviator shades for, anyway? It was well past six. It was practically dark. “Face it, Simba, you might not like it, but we're pretty useful.”

“Stop calling me 'Simba'.” The lion growled. Then the fox's words caught up with his brain. “Wait. So. You are claiming to be Robin Hood?”

Wilde sat up straight in the passenger seat. “What? No I'm not.”

“You just said 'we'.” Delgato pointed out. “'We're pretty useful'. The use of 'we' includes you as a Hood.”

“Well, I- But, I haven't-” Then the fox paused. Composed himself. Switched gears. “Freudian slips aren't considered legal testimony.”

The lion rolled his eyes. “Whatever. We're here.”

The squad car rolled to a full stop inside the disused parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. The building was uncomfortably close the bridge where Nick and Judy had their cathartic reconciliation. Along the same river, just a mile or two down. The building Loxley chose was closer to the water front. The proximity made the fox's hackles rise -metaphorically speaking- he didn't like the idea of the self-appointed Hood polluting a place that Nick connected with a significant turning point in his life. 

Next to him, Delgato checked the safety on his own weapon and sighed. “Well, are we gonna do this thing or not?”

Nick threw the quiver of arrows over one shoulder and the bow over the other. Quickly decided that, that was uncomfortable and moved the bow to the same shoulder as the quiver. That was even more uncomfortable. Finally, the fox decided to just carry the thing. How Loxley could move around so easily and fluidly with both crossed over his back Nick didn't know. Then again, Nick had never really given archery much thought. He never -in his wildest dreams- imagined he'd be in a situation where he'd need to show up with a bow and arrows. 

Delgato kicked in the main pedestrian door and ducked in first, gun in paw. He checked right, then left. Decided that there was no immediate threat and moved further into the building, waving for Nick to follow him. 

Sighing more to himself than for the lion's benefit, Nick followed his temporary partner in. In all honestly, while checking for threats was standard ZPD operating procedure, Nick didn't really think it was necessary in this instance. Loxley wanted to make a trade, Carrots for Goodfellow's badge. He wouldn't go through the trouble of organizing a trade if he was just going to shoot them and take the badge. Besides, detaining one officer of the ZPD as a hostage was far less sever of an offense than killing three of them. 

The warehouse was wide and mostly empty. With high ceilings that might have made it feel cavernous were it not for the cracked or broken windows inconsistently scattered across the walls. Neighborhood cubs throwing rocks for giggles probably. 

Loxley was towards the back of the warehouse, half way up a rusted flight of stairs that lead to the abandoned foreman's office. Sitting on a step next to him, all tied up in cable from shoulders to ankles, was Judy. 

“Took your bloody sweet time getting here.” Loxley commented. He glared at Delgato. “I know I didn't explicitly tell you to come alone, but one would have thought the request was implied.”

But Nick wasn't paying attention to him. His eyes were focused on his bunny. “Carrots, you okay?” 

“I'm a little tied up at the moment.” She smirked at him -a very foxish smirk- completely unconcerned by the fact that she was bound from neck to feet, unable to move, and completely dependent on the outcome of this trade to insure her safety. But then, that was his Carrots, that was Judy. She swung on vines while being chased by Savage jaguars, stole -and crashed- drug labs, and took down corrupt city officials. She was one fearless bunny. 

“If you two could dispense with the playful banter.” Loxley growled, not nearly as amused by the bunny as Nick was. “I'd like to get on with this.”

Delgato stepped forward, taking over the hostage exchange. “Hand us Officer Hopps and Wilde will give you the feather.”

“What? No I won't.” Nick blinked at the lion. “When did we make that agreement?”

Two predators growled, near identical rumbled of frustration -apart from the depth- at Wilde's continued stubbornness. 

“I made my terms quite clear.” Loxley reminded them.

“Wilde, just give him the damn feather and take Hopps back to base.” Delgato snarled. “I don't know about you, but the whole Robin Hood farce isn't fun for me and I'd just like to rescue my colleague, arrest the perp, and go home. Why did we come here if not to make a hostage exchange?”

Raising the arm that held the bow, it was Loxley that Nick spoke to when he suggested his alternative. “How about a shooting contest instead? What's a Robin Hood adventure without a shooting contest? If you win, I'll give you Goodfellow's badge -of course, you'll have to release Officer Hopps, or else I will arrest you. And if I win, I keep the badge and get Hopps.”

“Either way, you get the bunny.” Loxley didn't sound very impressed. 

Nick raised one quizzical eyebrow. “Oh? I didn't realize you two had gotten so close?” Then to Judy. “You getting a taste for limes, Carrots?”

“Please don't patronize the guy holding me hostage.” The bunny glared at him, not amused at all. 

“Hostage? I thought he was helping you with your mummy costume for the department's Halloween social.” The fox gave her -what he hoped was- a reassuring smirk. After all, if he could make light of the situation then she wasn't in any real danger. “Look, Loxley Hood, you don't want my partner, but you do want Goodfellow's badge. I'm not gonna give you the badge unless you earn it, and you're not gonna give me my partner unless I give you the badge. I think a shooting contest is a reasonable compromise. It gives you the opportunity to earn the badge and either way, I get my partner back. Everybody wins!”

Loxley paused, considered the other fox's logic. His eyes flicked to the bow in the cop-fox's paws. For as long as he'd been in the city -which was only one day- Loxley had never seen the other fox hold a bow, never mind actually shoot one. How good could the yank fox really be with the iconic weapon? Regardless of how bad or good he was with the weapon, how much worse would his skill be if he were forced to aim at something he didn't want to shoot? Then a sly grin spread across Loxley's face. An expression Nick learned to recognize in his own species when another fax was trying to pull one over on him. He knew Loxley was going to agree before he said, “Alright. But I pick the target.”

“That's only fair.” Nick nodded. 

“Whatever happened to not negotiating with kidnappers?” Delgato asked, remembering Bogo's reminder less than an hour ago. It was not the policy of the ZPD to negotiate with kidnappers. But then, the lion reflected, Wilde wasn't exactly thinking like an officer of the ZPD right now. In this instance, he was thinking like a fox. Not just any fox, but a sneaky member of the Cult of the Hood that revered a trickster god and idolized a 900-year-old criminal. 

His comment went unnoticed, however. Neither fox was paying attention to him. 

Instead, Loxley grabbed Hopps her cable bindings, lifting her back up over one shoulder as he came down the stairs to be on equal level with Nick and Delgato. He glanced around the wide open space. There wasn't much in the warehouse. Whatever goods that might have been abandoned with it were scavenged and picked over the years. There wasn't much that would serve as a suitable target. Just a half-dozen of wooden support pillars.

Loxley shoved Hopps against the closest wooden pillar with a rough command to, “Hold still and don't move.”

The bunny was confused for a moment before the hooded fox took a claw and carved a very small circle right between her ears. Barely above the crown of her head. Her heart stopped the moment she realized she was their target. Or, more accurately, she was the thing that would get hit if one of them missed the target. 

For the second time that day, the bottom dropped out of Nick's stomach. “Hey! That wasn't part of the deal.”

“You said I could pick the target.” Loxley flashed him that same sly grin. The one that meant the hooded fox though he'd already won. 

After all, there was no way Wilde was going to risk shooting at his own partner -whom he seemed uncommonly attached to- especially not with a weapon he was unfamiliar with. 

Judy's eyes locked with Nick's and she gave the slightest of nods. “You know I trust you.”

Did he know that? Yes. Yes, he did. The real question was, did he trust himself. Nick was a good shot. Top marksman in his graduating class at the academy. But he was a marksman with guns. Tranquilizer darts, tasers, beanbags, and bullets. But he was by no means the best marksman in the precent. Top three maybe...

“Alright, Carrots.” The fox nodded to his partner. Then, turning to the other fox, “But first you have to swear that -no matter the outvome of the match- that you'll hold to the terms of the agreement. Swear on Robin Goodfellow, swear on the Fae of the Greenwood.”

Loxley raised one paw in an archaic salute. “I swear on the name of Robin Goodfellow that I'll hold to the terms of the match and should I violate those terms may I never hold a bow again.”

Nick nodded, satisfied. “Alright. Loxley Hood gets the first shot.”

“Wilde! This is getting out of hand!” Delgato put a restraining paw on the fox's shoulder. The fox-cop, not the fox that notched an arrow to his bow and pulled back the string. The lion watched in horror as the arrow left the bow.

There was the sound of the sharp metal head impacting something and the lion opened eyes he hadn't realized he'd closed to see first Hopps with her own eyes squeezed shut. Then the arrow, stuck in the wood just above her head. Dead center of the circle Loxley had carved. Without moving her head, Hopps' eyes looked up, going slightly cross-eyed to see the shaft just barely grazing the top most hairs of her head. The bunny breathed a sigh of relief at realizing that she was still alive. A sigh that Delgato found himself echoing. 

“Alright.” He said. “Looks like the Limey won. Give him the feather. We'll take Hopps. And because we're such good sports, we'll give him a five minute head start before the Chief calls every cop in the city out for his blood.”

Nobody kidnaps, detains, and threatens an officer of the ZPD and gets away with it. 

“Cool it, Simba.” Nick waved him off. “Its my shot.”

“Carful. You might miss and hit your precious bunny.” Loxley taunted. 

“I won't miss.” Nick vowed. He lifted his own bow and pulled the string. Remembered that he hadn't yet notched an arrow and pulled one from the quiver. 

Loxley snorted. “You do know which way the arrow goes, right?”

“The pointy end goes into the target.” The other fox replied. It wasn't phrased as a question, but the way Nick pitched it, you'd almost think he was asking, 'Am I wrong?'

The hooded fox cast a side-long glance at Judy still tied up and leaning against the wooden support pillar. Loxley's arrow sticking out from between her ears. “You sure you still wanna trust this guy with your life?”

Lashing out with juvanile irritation, Nick swatted at Loxley with the fletched end of the arrow. The other fox batted the immature attack away and took a step back from Nick -tsk'ing at his poor sportsmanship. That was when Nick dropped the bow and his arrow, pulling out his ZPD issued dart gun instead. He raised the non-lethal weapon. Took aim and squeezed the trigger. 

A single shot was heard and everyone blinked, not sure what they'd just seen.

Sticking out of the end of Loxley's owl-fletched arrow was a bright neon green ZPD tranq dart. Nick hadn't hit the target, he hit the arrow that was already in the target. The dead center of the arrow that was dead center of the target. An impossible shot. 

The silence was finally broken when Judy gave a whoop of celebration. “Yeah! That's my partner! Now, someone get over here and untie me so I can give that dumb fox a hug!”

Both Delgato and Loxley's mouths fell open in shock. 

Loxley was the first to recover. “You cheated! You can't use guns in an archery contest!”

Now it was Nick's turn to give the other fox a sly smirk. The kind of smirk that meant, not only that he had already won, but that the other fox never even had a chance. “Ah, but I didn't say 'archery'. I said a shooting competition. You were the one who just assumed 'shooting' meant exclusively archery.” 

He crossed the space between where he'd taken his shot and the target and started fiddling with the knot of Judy's bindings. As soon as the cable fell away both fox and bunny turned back to face Loxley, identical smirks plastered over their mouths. 

Then, in perfect unison. Two Mammals, speaking with one voice. They said, “Its called a hustle, sweetheart.” 

“Zero rehearsal.” Nick added after. 

Loxley let loose a guttural snarl of rage at, not only loosing the match on a technicality, but also being taunted by the victor and his pet bunny! Since when did bunnies taunt foxes!? It was just adding insult onto insult and the hooded fox wasn't having it. Forgetting his weapons and all pretense of being a civilized Mammal, Loxley threw his bow and quiver of arrows down and leapt at the pair. 

Seeing the enraged predator coming, both fox and bunny pushed each other out of the way. One going on way, one going the other. Judy stumbled, lost her balance and fell on the ground not far from where Nick had dropped his decoy bow. It was sized for a fox and was just a little uncomfortably tall for a bunny. But the aluminum made it light weight and easy to hold. 

Nick fell back, flat on his tail with Loxley barreling down on him. Attacking the other fox with claws extended. Nick held up one arm to try and block the worst of the blows while he reached for his tranq gun. This was why he made sure the darts were dosed for a fox. Somehow he just knew Loxley wouldn't keep his word and hold to the terms of the match. A shame, and he'd even gone so far as to make the other fox swear on the name of Goodfellow too. 

“Gotta say, Loxley, you're one sore looser.” Nick finally managed to pull his tranquilizer gun from its holster. 

The enraged hooded fox knocked the weapon from the cop's paw. Closing one of his own paws around his throat. “You tricked me.”

To spite the paw tightening on his windpipe, Nick smirked up at his attacked. “Robin is a trickster.”

Loxley let out another snarl and raised his other paw, claws extended, to deal some version of a fatal blow. 

Then there was the distinct sound of a string that was pulled tight being suddenly let go and the whoosh of something sailing through the air. A wet impact. Nick felt something drip on his face and he opened eye he didn't realize he'd closed to see Loxley's paw still raised over his head -except now there was an arrow sticking clean through it. 

Both foxes stared at the wound in shock. 

Then Loxley screamed. 

He rolled off of Nick, clutching his injured paw in pain and sobbing.

Nick climbed to his feet and looked to where the shot had come from. He saw Judy standing, her feet planted in a firm stance, bow still up, arm pulled back in the same position she'd released the arrow from. His little warrior bunny. She never told him she knew archery. But, somehow, it didn't surprise him that she did. 

Delgato was on his radio informing the Chief that Hopps was safe and secured and requesting an ambulance for Loxley. 

Looking down at the hooded fox sobbing and clutching his paw at his feet, Nick smirked again. “Should thought before swearing to Goodfellow. You know fae have a thing about keeping your word.” A pause. “But then, I guess you did keep your word. You'll never hold a bow again.”

Robin Hood always had a way of making sure the rich and privileged suffered consequences for their corrupt actions.

Nick's words weren't the least bit comforting to the injured fox. Loxley curled up into a ball, wrapping his whole body around his injured paw with the arrow still sticking through it. Nick retrieved his discarded dart gun from where it had fallen. 

“Here. I'll give you something for the pain.” And he shot the hooded fox with the tranquilizer. When Loxley's cries subsided and he finally dropped off into unconsciousness, Nick wrapped an arm around Judy. “Oo-de-lally! Golly, what a day!”


	8. That's the Tale That's Told By the Bard

“Carrots, you're archery skills make me quiver.”

Judy did not look up from her computer as she snorted, not with amusement, but with exasperation. She was working on -not only the paperwork for their latest misadventure with the Hood- but also the backlog of paperwork for the Bellwether case. The prosecutor was in Bogo's office now being stalled. “How long have you been holding that one in?”

“About the last ten minutes.” The fox replied, leaning back in his seat and stretching. Sitting up straight he pointed to the document he'd been typing in for the past ten minutes. “I've made a list.”

Apparently, 'paperwork' held a different meaning for him than it did for the rest of the ZPD. Judy groaned and rolled her eyes. Saving the last document for the Bellwether case and emailing the compressed file to the Chief. If she was lucky, the prosecutor would have his files and be out of the building without Bogo needing to call her or Nick into his office. After spending all of yesterday pretty much living a real-life modern-day Robin Hood adventure, Nick did not have the either the patience or maturity to be an adult -never mind a competent officer of the ZPD. 

“Its no wonder you were able to make that shot.” He continued. “After all, you've always been a straight shooter. Ba-dum-bum psh!” 

Judy turned her swivel chair around to glare at him. “Are you going to make bad archery puns all day?”

“Of course not!” The fox assured her. “When the hospital calls to tell us that Loxley woke up and we can go over there and read him his rights, I'm gonna be making paw puns.” A pause. “A lot of them might be what you would call 'inappropriate' though. You know what guy's use their paws for...”

She opted not to acknowledge that last part and just focus on the one remotely important thing he said. “We're not gonna be the ones to read Loxley his Miranda Rights. We won't be arresting him. You and I were -technically- the victims. Remember? Victims don't arrest perps. Delgato and Wolford left for the hospital half an hour ago.”

“Why does no one tell me these things?” 

He graduated the academy. Nick should have known all of those things. “Because you're not a child and you shouldn't need someone to hold your paw.” She reminded him. Her reprimand lost some weight on account of the fact that she was smiling affectionately as she said it. While she was irritated with him, it was all part of the puckish charm that made Nick -Nick. “Meanwhile... while you were wasting time composting archery puns and bawdy paw jokes that you'll probably not have the chance to deliver, I finally finished the paperwork that's been back-logged -literally- since you graduated the academy.”

“That's what makes you so amazing, Carrots.” He turned that impish grin on her. Reaching a paw up to his shield, he pulled out Goodfellow's badge. “Here. Have a feather.”

Judy rolled her eyes again and turned her chair back to her computer. Now that the Bellwether paperwork was done she could work on what was already being called the 'Robin Hood Debacle' around the precent. “Please stop trying to give me culturally specific totems that are likely to offend other Mammal groups. I'm flattered. But after yesterday, I don't think its a good idea.”

“But, Carrots, that shot-”

Nick was cut off when Bogo's voice reverberated through the building. “Hopps! Wilde! My office!”

The fox cast a sideways glance at his bunny. “Aw, Carrots... did you accidentally use a hyphen instead of a backslash on the Bellwether files?”

“Har, har.” Judy climbed out of her chair to answer the Chief's summons. 

If that really was the reason for being called into Bogo's office, the buffalo wouldn't have shouted it for the whole precent to hear. He would have just called her in explain the typo to the prosecutor and fix the mistake before the files were surrendered to the defense. Things like that the Chief liked to handle quietly. Shouting through the building was reserved, specifically, for when an officer was in trouble. Judy couldn't imagine what she and Nick had done -recently (since yesterday)- that could have incurred Bogo's wrath. 

So, she was more curious than apprehensive when she and her fox stepped into the Chief's office. 

Bogo was standing, talking to another Mammal. But it was not the prosecutor from the District Attorney's office he was speaking to. 

A -rather impressively large- brown bear was muttering to the Chief of Police when Nick and Judy entered the office. He was wearing a prefessional looking suit in a shade of green so dark it could have been black and carried an attache case under one arm, so the bunny supposed he could have been from the DA's office here to discuss some detail of the Bellwether case. But then her eyes fell on the small gold pin on his lapel. An arrow and a bow. A symbol she'd become very familiar with in the last two days. The crest of the Loxley estate as well as the symbol of the Brotherhood of the Hood. 

So, this had to do with the Robin mantel then. Judy cast an appraising glance at Nick to see if he'd also noticed the pen and gauge his reaction. The fox's expression was neutral and guarded as he studied the bear. After yesterday's mad adventure, he was far less trusting of the Brotherhood than his mother had raised him to be. 

Chief Bogo cleared his throat. “Wilde. Hopps. This is, uh, I'm sorry, I'm afraid I've forgotten all your titles.”

“That's quite alright.” The bear assured him with a friendly and understanding smile. “I'd forget them to if they weren't always shouting them every time I entered a room. Its actually a rather welcoming reprieve to be able to do without them.” To Judy and Nick he introduced himself simply. “I'm John Little.”

“No yiffing way!” Nick caught himself just a little to late. The words escaping his lips before his paw could clap over his muzzle in a failed effort to stop them. He regretted the swear the moment it was uttered aloud. “I mean- that is- uhm...”

Judy placed a calming paw on his arm. “I think what my partner means to say is that just yesterday we responded to a case having to do with the old tale of Robin Hood and its very jarring -the very next day- to meet someone with the same name as a pivotal character from said story.” A pause in which Judy remembered that manners were a thing and her parents taught them to her. “But it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Little. I'm Officer Hopps. The rude one here is my partner Officer Wilde. What can we do for you?”

“Actually, the matter of the Hood is why I'm here.” Little set his attache case on the desk and began unlatching its clasps. 

Bogo stepped out, closing the office door behind him. The Chief was letting them use his office. Bogo was leaving them alone in his office unsupervised. If Nick's attention wasn't already completely dominated by the mention of the Hood, he would have been blasting about it all over Zoobook and Twitcher. His paw was once again resting over his ZPD shield -and Goodfellow's feather. 

“What about the Hood?” Nick asked slowly -cautiously. 

“The succession of the Robin of the Hood mantel has been called into question.” Explained the bear as he took out a legal binder and pen. Little might have sat down in the Chief's seat behind the desk, except that the chair was far to small for his more than considerable bulk. He opened the legal folder. “Now, you are Nickolas Piberius Wilde, son of John Wilde and Marian Longstride?”

Nick groaned. “Do you have to use my middle name?”

“Please, just answer the question.” Little asked patiently. 

“Yes. That's me.” He sighed. 

Little nodded and made a note on a page in his binder. “And your companion is Judith Lavern Hopps, daughter of Stuart Hopps and Bonnie Skippy?”

“Yes, that's right.” The bunny nodded her affirmative. 

“I didn't know your mom's maiden name was 'Skippy'.” Nick blinked at her. “Why didn't you tell me?”

Judy only shrugged. Like it was an inconsequential detail that she never even thought about. “Its a common bunny name. I didn't think it mattered.”

The fox sputtered helplessly for a few moments before the bear gave a knowing smile. He pulled a folded up newspaper from the attache case and held it out for both fox and bunny to read. It was not a local publication and the article he showed them was on page five, not very relevant to the area the paper was local to. But still world news worth mentioning. It was an article on the Night Howler case and how it was solved. 

“And this was the both of you, was it not?”

“Yes. That's right.” Judy said again. 

Little nodded, putting the paper down. “It was after reading this article that Rob -that is, Robert of Loxley VI- decided to send you Robin Goodfellow's feather, the badge of a Robin under the Hood. Normally, that would have been the end of it. The head of the Loxley Estate and custodian of the Robin mantel named a successor he found worthy. But Rob's health was failing and some used that to claim that your succession was the result of an ailing mind and not because you earned the title.”

“'Some' being Robert Loxley number seven.” Judy crossed her arms over her chest. 

“Its not my job to name the concerned party.” The bear informed her. “I'm merely here to interview you and decide where or not those concerns are founded. Now, after you received Goodfellow's badge, what was the first thing you did?”

“Why don't you ask Loxley what he did after Nick got the feather?” Judy asked, she placed one stern hand on her hip and glared up at the bear. Refusing to be intimidated by his size. She held the bare with a challenging stare that would have legitimately terrified Nick if it had been aimed at him. 

Unfortunately, the large brown bear did not find the tiny bunny nearly as intimidating as her fox partner. “I am not at liberty to discuss my interview with Robert of Loxley VII at this time. At the moment, my focus is on Nickola Wilde. I'll get to you, madam, in due time.”

“Madam!?” Judy blinked at him. For some reason she left like he'd just called her 'old'. She was twenty-four. She was not 'old'. Heck! She was younger than Nick and she considered him to still be in his prime. She was not a 'madam' she was a 'miss'! The fact that it was one of the small cultural differences between New World and the Old Country went completely unacknowledged. 

Nick placed a pacifying paw on her shoulder. “Its okay, Carrots.” He assured her. “Matters of the Hood should be taken seriously.” To John Little he said, “I went straight to my mother's after I got the badge.”

Little made another note. “And what did you do there?”

“We argued.” Nick answered promptly. 

“What about?” The bear stood patiently.

The fox hesitated. Took a breath. Sighed. “I didn't think I deserved the Robin mantel. Prior to the Bellwether case -that is, the Night Howler crisis- I was just a small time con-artist. I was only ever looking out for myself and didn't care about other Mammals. Not qualities one usually looks for in a Robin Hood candidate. I decided to give the badge to someone else. Someone I knew represented what the Robin is supposed to be and who I felt deserved it.”

Judy turned to stare at him. Academically, she already knew that. But hearing him say it out loud. Declare it to a stranger with such passion and earnest. It made something unfamiliar but not at all unpleasing flutter in her chest. 

But Nick wasn't looking at her. He was avoiding eye-contact all together. 

“I see.” Little was scribbling furiously on the legal pad in his binder. “And who was this other Mammal you felt was so much more worthy of being the Robin?”

That was when Nick did look a Judy, a warm and affectionate smile on his face. “She's standing right next to me.”

The bear did not look the least bit surprised. “And after you gave her the badge, what happened?”

“I went home and was attacked in my bathroom by a hooded whiny baby-Mammal who thought he could just take the badge and declare himself the Robin.” Nick answered without hesitation. He paused to gauge the bear's reaction. 

Little kept his face impassive as he continued to jot down in short hand Nick's narrative. “Please, continue.”

So, he did. The fox told him about the chase through the Rainforest District, the fight on the sky tram platform where Loxley ripped the badge from Carrot's chest. How the bunny had beaten him into submission and took the feather back and gave it to him. How Loxley then took her hostage with the intent to trade her for the feather. The shooting contest, and how Nick carefully left a loophole open so that he could win with a gun rather than a bow. And his especially favorite detail, Judy's unbelievably fantastic shot that saved -of not his life- then at least his face from permanent disfigurement. 

He might have said it as a joke earlier, but that didn't make it any less true. Her archery skills really did make him quiver. 

When Nick was done, Little turned to a blank page in his legal binder. “Alright, and now Miss Hopps. What did you do after Mr. Wilde gave you Goodfellow's badge?”

For some reason, Judy suddenly felt inexplicably awkward. “Oh, well, I didn't really understand what it meant. I could tell it was important to Nick, but he was a little frantic with his explanations. So I just told him I'd keep it safe until he was ready to take it back. Then I went back to work. I didn't really think about it or Nick again until one of my colleagues barged into my cubicle saying Nick was on the radio being held up by an attacker. Nick is my partner and my friend, so of course I dropped very thing and rushed off to help him.”

“How very interesting.” Muttered the bear.

“What? That Nick and I are partners?” Judy asked, defensive. “We work well together. We did manage to solve the Night Howler case, after all. Not to mention we're the only Mammals on the force in our size class. So, even if Nick was incompetent, I still would have been stuck with him.”

“Thanks, Carrots.” The sarcasm was thick with that one.

“Actually, I was commenting on how interesting it was that you felt the need to explain why you went to help him.” Little explained. “I see you feel very passionately about you... partner.” He cleared his throat, signifying that the line of discussion should be dropped. “So, you rushed off to aid Mr. Wilde and found him and a hooded assailant at the sky tram?”

“No. First I went to his apartment. But no one was there.” Clarified the bunny. And she launched into a tale of her own. Of how she used her radio to follow the reports of disturbances all over the Rainforest District. The foxes fighting and/or chasing each other through construction sights, open walkways, even zip-lining on the tram cables. That was how she found Nick and his attacker on the sky tram platform where they had their altercation and she was taken hostage. She glanced over the minor detail of Loxley overpowering her and tying her up and instead went into great detail of how he threatened to eat her just to taunt Nick. 

Then there was a hotel room where she was explicitly denied the opportunity to use the restroom. An offense that seemed to both Judy far more than being taken hostage. What kind of monster didn't let a lady pee!? Then there was mention of endless waiting while Loxley went back out to deliver his message with details of when and where to meet for the exchange. The shooting contest. How Loxley went back on his word and lost most of the use of his right paw for it. 

“You're down-playing just how awesome that shot was, Carrots.” Nick interrupted. 

Little smiled at him. “I can see she genuinely impressed you.”

“I'm telling you, she is Robin Hood.” The fox insisted. 

“And I'm telling you, I don't want it.” Judy reminded him. “This is clearly a fox thing and if you give it to me its gonna piss off a lot more than just Loxley. We have to deal with enough normal city crime on a daily basis. I don't wanna have to deal with this too.”

The bear's smile only broadened. “There is an old saying that power is best suited to those who don't seek it. In this case, that seems to be both of you.” 

They paused, both blinking at him in confusion. 

“Yeah, but... there can only be one Robin Hood.” Nick reminded him. “One per generation. That's the rule.”

“Oh? Is that the rule? Or is it like the 'rule' that only a fox can be Robin Hood?” Little shot back, eyebrows raised. “You'll find there are far more Mammals than just foxes within the Brotherhood.” 

“But I thought-”

“It seems you've thought many things between now and yesterday morning, Mr. Wilde.” Said John Little, glancing back at his notes. “Now, let me tell you what I think.”

The bear bent down to the small fox and reached a paw out. Gently -very gently- the large predator pulled the robin father out from behind Nick's ZPD shield. He held it between fox and bunny so that both could see it quite clearly. Little dragged one sharp claw down the feather's center -then pulled it apart. Now holding two almost identical halves of Goodfellow's badge. One in each paw. 

“I think you both will make excellent Robins under the Hood and that is what's going to be written down in the histories of the Hood.” He handed one half each to the fox and the bunny. He stood back up, groaning. “Ugh! I'm getting to old to be bending like that.”

John Little began packing up his legal binder and papers. 

Tucking his attache case under one arm he asked, “Now then, where do I go to pay my idiot godson's absurdly outrageous bail?”

He exited the office. Leaving both Nick and Judy holding near identical halves of a red feather. Standing dazed and slightly confused. Not quite sure what had just happened. 

“Nick, are we...”

“I think so, Carrots.” Said the fox slowly, starring at his half of the feather. “With our powers combined, we are Robin Hood!”

…

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheesy ending is cheesy. But I hope you enjoyed.


	9. BONUS! Photo-Edit of Nick with his bow.

Someone did a lovely photo-edit of Nick with the bow and quiver of arrows he bought. I thought it was sweet. 

Original image from the Zootopia app game "Zootopia: Crime Files".

Photo-edit by King Barragan.

[](http://s20.photobucket.com/user/RenkonNairu/media/Zootopia/ArcherNick_zpset1sgb5g.jpg.html)


End file.
